Panicking That I'm Not Going to Read the New T.C. Boyle Before the Event on 2/24--Good Thing Jason Already Did

After two blog posts where I talked about books that I'd read in preparation for an upcoming event, I now I'm feeling more under the gun that I should read every single book for events. I'm clearly not able to do that; not even all the big events. But I feel guilty about it.

And there's another wrinkle. Often on big tours, there's sometimes no choice to be among the first stores to host an event. That makes it hard to hand-sell the book beforehand. Fortunately these authors often have backlist available, which is why you see piles of T.C. Boyle books on our author case. In Mr. Boyle's case, we're probably event #3, as his new novel, When the Killing's Done, goes on sale 2/22, and our event is Thursday, February 24th, at 7 PM, at Boswell. It is not ticketed--we welcome all Boyle fans, whether you borrow him from the library or download him on your e-reader. That said, we need to sell books in order to keep getting authors of this stature--just saying.

You say you don't like novels? Short stories are your thing? Well, how convenient, as Boyle is considered a short story master, and his new collection, Wild Child, will be out in paperback for the event.

The new novel is a story set off the coast of Santa Barbara in the Channel Islands. On one side is Alma Boyd Takesue, a National Park Service biologist hoping to preserve the native animals from interlopers like feral pigs and rats. On the other is Dave LaJoy, a local businessman, who, with his partner the folksinger Anise, is fiercely opposed to the killing of any living creature. The violence escalates in a battle of crossed environmental causes. There's also the story of Alma's grandmother, the sole survivor of a 1940's shipwreck, and Anise's mother, a sheeprancher, whose tales play into the story. The past weighing on the present, and all that!

So the good news is that our buyer Jason Kennedy read and loved When the Killing's Done:
"Two environmentalists are attempting to save two different species on the Channel Islands—one through killing rats to protect the birds, the other is trying to save the rats, birds be damned. Boyle expertly alternates perspectives as Alma Boyd Takesue attempts to eliminate the invasive species from the islands and Dave LaJoy attempts to thwart her at ever crossing. Through escalating violence, they both forget that Nature is by far the bigger force here. Boyle has some of the quirkiest characters, and their obsessions lead them far astray from the people they think they are. A fantastic novel that will have you wanting to read more Boyle."

If you haven't seen Boyle, it's an event not to be missed. Think Sherman Alexie. Way more than just a dry reading and a couple of questions. This is one of the highlights of our winter season.

There's another nice spin here. On our just-released winter 2011 book club recommendations (the complete list is on a forthcoming blog post), I am recommending T.C. Boyle's The Women, his previous novel about Frank Lloyd Wright. It's out just in time for the new Milwaukee Art Museum Frank Lloyd Wright show, which opens February 12th. Everything will be Wright with the world come February, and a good juicy novel can further the mood. I'm suggesting that book clubs read the novel in conjunction with a visit to the show.

So mark your calendars now, reserve a copy of the book (The Women now, When the Killing's Done later, Wild Child when you are in the midst of a big project and only have time for a story here and there), get tickets to the show, and maybe buy a plush Frank Lloyd Wright doll.

Having Finished Reading Chris Bohjalian's Secrets of Eden, I Can Further Talk Up Our Lunch on February 11th at Lake Park Bistro.

Angels. Now we're reading in Daniel's comfort zone, right? But that's exactly the expertise of the famous author who visits Haverill, Vermont after a grisly murder suicide that demoralizes the town.

Stephen Drew is the minister of one of the main churches. It's Vermont, not exactly the Bible belt, but one of his flock, Alice Hayward, has asked to be traditionally baptized in a nearby lake. Less than a day later, she will be murdered, strangled, and her abusive husband will also be dead from a gunshot wound. Murder-suicide.

Not that unusual. George Hayward was in many ways a classic batterer. A successful entrepreneur with numerous sources of stress, he isolated Alice and then started fights with her, especially when he was drunk. A smart man, he rarely hit her where it showed--the back of the head, the small of the back. She's attacked for her bad cooking, how much money she spends, and especially for provocative dressing and inadvertent flirting. Somtimes kids get the abuse too, but their daughter Katie is generally able to stay out of the way. Alice even tries a restraining order, but in the end, the contrite George is able to move back.

So the crime happens, and it turns out noted spiritual writer Heather Laurent is in town, talking at a conference, appearing on a local NPR show, and signing at a bookstore (it would have to be Northshire--I wonder how the signing went...at 10 am). She's drawn to the tragedy, since it mimics a tragedy from her own life. She really wants to help Katie, but she finds herself also drawn to Stephen Drew, particularly because of some of the self-damning comments he's made that have been captured in the press. The attraction is mutual, and he's ready to leave the town, but...some of his moves begin to look suspicious by law enforcement.

OK, that's enough plot. I don't really want to give too much away, because the story has some interesting twists going on. It's told from several perspectives, and each voice puts a different spin on the situation and the characters, while still driving the plot. Like many of Bohjalian's stories, there's a suspense angle to the story, and like what I assume to be another trademark of Bohjalian fiction, there are several characters that you could have a field day about, arguing about their motives and whether they've made good or bad judgments and decisions. The reverend, for example, comes off very differently, depending on whether he or someone else is telling the story.

So I finished the book and thought, "So that's why so many book clubs read him." I didn't see some of that coming, and there are some things I'd want to talk about. Admittedly, there's an earnestness to the writing that's not going to work for everybody. And the angel writer is a little tough for some of the most vocal of my customer base, but once you read her perspective, she works better. Oh, and let me say there are plenty of folks in my customer base that will be totally amenable to her perspective. It's just that some of the ones who don't are also the folks who will write to me and visit and want to know why I've gravitated to writers who believe in angels. And I will reply that I am writing about a writer who is writing about a writer who believes in angels, a very different thing, and by the end of the book (no further hints), you see why she is there. And now Gloria is going to read the ending first. What am I going to do with you?

So the lunch! As I've mentioned before, we're hosting Chris Bohjalian (photo credit Victoria Blewer) at a special lunch on Friday, February 11th. It's 12 Noon at Lake Park Bistro (pictured in Lake Park, as well as the view from the window of Lake Michigan) and you must buy your ticket ahead of time. I hope...HOPE..to sell out so I can stop panicking about this. Also if we sell out, I can put together more of these kinds of intimate events.

Here's an interesting aside, the top five Bohjalian paperback books by demand from Ingram:

1. The Double Bind

2. Skeletons at the Feast

3. Midwives

4. Before You Know Kindness

5. Trans-Sister Radio

Email Stacie (she's more organized than me about these sorts of things) or call the store (414-332-1181) for tickets, which are $60. That includes the goat cheese salad, a choice of three entrees (chicken, halibut, or cheese ravioli), apple tart, nonalcoholic beverage, tax, tip, and a copy of Secrets of Eden in paperback, which I should say is going to be available in paperback on February 1st. Already read it in hardcover? Then you like it enough to send it as a gift. You can also get a $10 gift card to Boswell instead. You can pick up your ticket beforehand, hold it for that day, or have it mailed to you. You must buy the tix ahead of time, however, and they are not refundable (because we need to pay the restaurant, and to be totally up front, we've already put down a deposit).

Have you been to Lake Park Bistro before? It's beautiful. And the room we have overlooks the lake. How's that for spectactular? This is not like one of those function rooms where you're in the basement.

That said, you might want to go to a traditional free author appearance. There is one, but it's not ours. In fact, it's at that bookstore at the B&N Mayfair. Most like at 7. If you do go, tell Mr. Bohjalian that I sent you! That way, I don't get the visit but I still get the points. And I do collect the points.

I Stay Up (Practically) All Night Reading the Johnny Weir Memoir so I Can Tell You About our Signing on Tuesday, January 18th, 5 PM.

Today is the day that Johnny Weir's book, Welcome to my World is released. Weir is going on a bus tour and we are lucky enough to be one of the stops. I'm going to get the details out of the way first:
a. The signing starts at 5 PM. Weir is on a tight schedule and must be at his next event in Madison by 8. I suspect he will be out of the store by between 6 and 6:30 PM.
b. Copies of the book Welcome to my World only. No souvenirs, no other stuff with his name on it. He will not sign your Nook, Kindle, or Ipad.
c. No posed photos. You make take pictures while in the line.
d. No personalization or special signing requests.

Sometimes the author has extra time, or the line isn't as long as we expected. If 50 people show up, rules will likely be broken. But if there are 300 people, understand that if you demand special treatment, someone else won't get their book signed. We apologize in advance if he needs to leave early.* And don't tell me that you are his biggest fan in the world--according to the book, that honor is held by a woman that Galina (coach #2) claimed was a Russian prostitute.

Now, onto the book. I'm not the most knowledgeable person about figure skating, but Weir is one of those celebrities whose fame has transcended the sport. The book covers the years he started stating through his appearance (and sixth place finish) at the 2010 Olympics.

Johnny wasn't the kind of guy pushed into the sport by his parents, but he did have the loving support of a mom and dad that were willing to invest in his talents. Before his late introduction to skating (and realization that he was naturally talented), he was competing in equestrian events.

Weir went through all the usual setbacks that bedevil athletes--regular moves to ensure the best training, a change of coaches, injuries, emotional crises. And he's certainly not the first male figure skater to be gay. But his choice to be both outrageous in his style and costumes, and yet choose to not come out publicly led to battles with both the U.S. Figure Skating Association (which likes its gay figure skaters closeted and masculine) and mainstream gay media and organizations (he turned down a coming-out cover story in the Advocate after his first Olympics).

Oh, except the fans--no battles there. He has lots of fans, and perhaps his most enthusiastic are the Russians and the Japanese.

While putting together our ballet event with Jennifer Homans on February 3rd (for Apollo's Angels), we discussed how choosing to be a ballet dancer gives your career an expiration date, so even when you're young, you have to figure out what you're likely to do next. Same for figure skating. Weir is 26 and he needs to figure out the next step. There's a bit of sadness to the story, as he dedicates his years to the ultimate pursuit of the goal, and at 26 must now rethink it all.

Yes, I read the book, and one thing I was happily surprised about was that this is not a big-margined fluff piece that you can read in an hour. There's a lot of meat in here, giving lots of insights into why he made the decisions he did. There is some remorse for some of his bad calls (at least one faking of sickness) and some analysis for why some routines worked and others didn't (the one piece outfits are two Russian, nobody wants to see a ballet skated about Jesus...or maybe brown is a bad color for the ice). Yes, there is much gossip, but it's also quite touching, and actually pretty demure, as these things go.

(Addendum to the original post. It has struck me of the irony that Weir had problems with the committee over his perception as a role model. In fact, what Welcome to my World shows is that despite his innate talent, he worked incredibly hard for his successes, and then, when he thought he might be plateauing, he found another coach that would make him work even harder. If that isn't a lesson to young people, I don't know what is.)

So show up reasonably early, and be prepared to wait a bit, as it's possible his bus will be delayed from Chicago. We'll fit as many people as we can in the store, but the line will eventually head outside. If it's cold, bundle up! Remember, the signing for Johnny Weir's Welcome to my World is 5 pm, Tuesday, January 18th. And if you don't regularly read this blog, our address is 2559 N. Downer (at Webster), six blocks south of UWM and two blocks north of Columbia St. Mary's Hospital. We're on the 30 and 21 routes, and a reasonably short walk from the 15, if you don't want to transfer. There's a parking garage across the street and plenty of street spts at that time. If you have trouble parking, you'll have more luck going south and east than north and west. Oh, and we have two very nice and reasonably priced restaurants on the block, Cafe Hollander and Via. And many more places to eat are less than a five minute car ride away.

*I'll never forget the anger of that crowd at Schwartz who was left hanging when Brett Favre left to sign memorabilia somewhere else. Note that we didn't end the signing, his people did. The crowd didn't blame the sports reporter who wasted our signing time with an impromptu interview; they blamed us. Why, I don't know. And of course some of the angriest people were the ones who showed up late. I'm just going to say that this was one of my two or three worst event experiences of my career, and I don't want to repeat it. So be nice!

Inventory, Peter Hessler, Iron Cupcake

My schedule is off this week because Amie and I worked last night; we had a physical inventory done in the store. We have friends at other bookstores who do the inventories themselves, but I just couldn't handle it this year. I have one friend in Vermont who caters the annual inventory for The Norwich Bookstore. I'm sure it's delicious, because I used to be one of her preppers at the Collis Cafe when I went to Dartmouth. And one of our customers could have been Annette Gordon-Reed, who I just found out overlapped me by a few years. I didn't know here, but I just put The Hemingses of Monticello on another display. Let's just say that the book didn't need my help, but I've been trying to figure out how to work that into a blog post.

Here's a little shot how they keep track of each book case. Our final number came out about 1.5% off from our computer, which means I owe Amie a coffee.

We did finish a bit early, but with coming in early to help set up, my clock is off. I did get a blog piece done for an event we're doing, but in this particular case, I wanted it vetted by a few people so it's been delayed. But what should I talk about in this post?

This morning I ordered event books. I had a surge of bookings late last week, including Peter Hessler at the store for Country Driving in paperback (definitely more about this later), and a gig at the next Iron Cupcake, "Pro/Am Cupcake Clash", where the judges will be Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes, who has the Ace of Cakes book, and Vinny and Michele Garcia of Chicago's Bleeding Heart Bakery. They also have a book called Who You Callin' Cupcake. We'll have both for sale, and the authors will sign.

The event is Sunday, February 13th at the MSOE Kern Center, cosponsored by WMSE and a host of others. It starts at 10 am and admission is $6. More information is available on the Iron Cupcake blog. Go, Sandy!

Oh, and I'm a jury duty alternate. Time to call in!

We Close Early for Inventory, Nonfiction Bestsellers, Our MLK/African American History Display Goes Up

Inventory is today at 4 pm. Alas, that means we're closing early. It also means I'm working the 2 to 10 pm shift (I like to do my AM and PM in caps, but since most eveyone else at the store does them lower case, I'm trying to adjust). I don't like it!

We've already done a lot of preparation, and this afternoon, my job is to make sure that I didn't hide any overstock, and that the gift items are clearly separated from the books.

Needless to say, after Christmas, the bestseller list quiets down and starts to get event heavy. This week's nonfiction top five has two upcoming events on it. Our rep asked us about the sales for Danielle McGuire's At the Dark End of the Street. This was partly a special order for multiple copies and partly a regular sale. Sometimes I don't include bulk orders on the list we send out, but combos seem worth including, especially as we had been selling the book steadily for the past few months. Let me just say that our sales rep inquired, as he was a bit suprised!

Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers, week ending January 8, 2011
1. At the Dark End of the Street, by Danielle L. McGuire
2. Apollo's Angels, by Jennifer Homans
3. All Things Shining, by Hubert Dreyfus
4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
5. American Rose, by Karen Abbott

Not one, but two of the titles (the other was Rebecca Skloot's) were on our new combination Martin Luther King Day/African American History month display that went up on Saturday. What's nice is that I was able to repurpose books from other tables. The Warmth of Other Suns was on our New York Times Best Books of 2010 display, Hellhound on His Trail was on a general history table, and The Hemingses of Monticello was on a small display that saluted winners of the MacArthur Genius Awards. Oh, and since I included some historical novels, Bernice McFadden's Glorious was on the Lori-Tharps-recommends-these-books display.

Yes, I know that African American history month starts is February. But shouldn't you read the books early, so you can discuss among yourselves?

Reporting on the State of the Store for Publishing Trends, Our Current Email Newsletter, Plus We Get a New Hand Cart

Back at Schwartz, Publishing Trends would ask us to do something every year. I can't even remember what it was, but since David told me to do it, I did it. Last month Amy Rhodes, long-time publisharista and new partner at PT, bounced the idea of me writing a state of the business from a bookseller's perspective. The piece would be alongside one publishing person and one agent.

If you read this blog, there's little that I say that will be news to you. But who knows? Maybe I came up with a revelation while I was writing.

"In my twenty-fifth season as a bookseller, and my second as a bookseller-proprietor, I’ve come to believe that the only constant is change. When I started, the local department store still had a book department, and our fiercest competitors were other independents. Since then I’ve dealt with the rise of book superstores, the growth of mass merchant book departments, the push of book publishers into nontraditional retail (cooking stores, home improvement, craft stores, etc), internet sales, and now e-books. So what else is new?"
Continue reading on the PT website.

The other columnists are perspectives from editor/publisher David Rosenthal and agent Jacqueline Murphy. You'll find links to their columns on the left hand of the website.

Speaking of links, for those of you who don't get our email newsletter, here's a link to it in the Constant Contact Archive. In addition to event info, we've got some takes on some fresh Boswell's Best titles. I'm not sure how it happened, but it's a lotta Scribner.

And finally, because what is a blog post without a photo, here's a picture of our new hand truck. Unlike the old one, it's convertible. I do a lot of offsite events and it's been very difficult to set up. I also broke our only moving dolly--it collapsed from the weight.

This new cart should work better. It's also green. We got it from Demco, which is actually a privately owned business out of Madison. They actually also own Gaylord of Syracuse, which is where I did price comparison.

One of Those Blog Pieces Where I Link to Other Blog Piece, and Sometimes They Link to Other Blog Pieces.

Old coworker and friend Sarah came in from Madison with Dave for the holidays. Among our many conversations was one about what book blogs I look at. I gave her a list and thought, could this be a blog? So here's my Dan-gregator for the week.

You all know that I love the bookstore Micawbers in St. Paul. Despite never having gone there, I regularly give out directions to their store for anyone visiting or from the Twin Cities. Heck, Minnesota. "It's only two hours away from you and definitely worth a weekend getaway." Hans (or well, I think it's Hans) has been listing notable books of the year by subject. His current topic is "Odds and Ends", filled with bookish delights and hard-to-print beauties like Rebecca Solnit's Infinite City and Judith Schalansky's Atlas of Remote Islands, both of which had a pop in our store, and were rather hard to restock. There's also John E.'s pick, Aaaaz to Zzzzzd: The Words of Birds. All I want to do now is have a displace case of this stuff, but I can't decide whether to call it ephemera of potpourri. Solnit's book is still out of stock at wholesalers.

I also wind up sending a lot of people to Skylight Books when they go to Los Angeles. Los Feliz is one of those neighborhoods you don't expect to find out there. My ex-rep Tom said, "It's the closest thing I could find to Chicago in Southern California" and indeed, it's got a Wicker Park-meets-Lakeview vibe. Things are close enough together for some good walking, and unlike say, walking along Sunset, the streets are people scaled. One of my favorite books, Jamesland, was set there. So Emily of Skylight just did a post on her favorite books of 2010 and its an interesting mix the well-known and the eclectic. Oy, I still haven't read Room yet; what's to become of me? Every time someone would open up Anne Carson's Nox I'd get a little nervous, but I wish more people had opened Andrew Moore's Detroit Disassembled (and bought it). Somebody bought it, as it's out of stock at Ingram.

It's a reference within a reference. The Green Apple Core hails Beatrice.com for Oprah not picking a female novelist for her book club since 2004, and a living one since 2002. Interestingly enough, the first time around, the book club read more women than men, but in it's return, it suddenly got "I'm going to teach you a thing or two about books" instead of "Let's read this book together and talk about it." If I say more, I'll get into trouble. Green Apple made a list of ten great books of fiction written by women this year. Look, there's Room again, and also The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, another book on the pile. Aside from listing the ebook prices only (no book prices), which was like fingernails on the blackboard to me, a great list. I can't believe I hadn't been to Green Apple on any of my prior trips to San Francisco. Now that I've been, I don't think I'll ever be within 50 miles of the city without a pilgrimage again.

Huck Finn on the Channel 12 News

I guess 2010 as "The Year of Mark Twain" is carrying into 2011. The Autobiography of Mark Twain turned out to be our bestselling book of the holiday season. Tomorrow I'm going to find out that they are adapting Roughing It into a motion picture vehicle for Robert Pattinson. But yesterday the news was that NewSouth Books was releasing an omnibus edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with the N word replaced by "slave."

When WISN Channel 12 news called me up to talk about it on a local level, my first words out were, "That's a story?" It's public domain, the originals will still be available, books are abridged and changed all the time for school use, and how can I argue about this when I am carrying a copy of Tom Sawyer and the Undead? Here's my little bit, plus the very fair counterpoint from the wonderful poet and Marquette prof Angela Sorby.

Rewriting Classics - Video - WISN Milwaukee

It reminded me of the video stores in Utah that edited R-rated movies to eliminate objectionable material and drew flak. Of course the real issue there was not artistic compromise (honestly, just about any movie that sees a commercial release has been artistically compromised many times over) but that the films are under copyright (so that only the studios or authorized bodies can make the cut, like when you see a highly censored version of a film on an airplane). And think about all the books in translation where these sorts of decisions are made all the time.

So I thought that discussing Huck Finn in some high school English classes (but not all) could be a rewarding experience, including a discussion about the language in context and what the intent was. I think you can have this conversation with either edition of the book. Of course at least one of the copies in our store said it was targeted to ages 9-12. Middle school? Note that both the kid editions we looked at were British in origin, where this is a different relationship to the word.

It's cop out time. In the end, I am a bookseller who may be part of the conversation, but not really part of the process. It is likely that there is a large school body (it's usually California or Texas) that has a call for this.

Not everybody agrees at Boswell agrees with me, and I wouldn't even say that my thoughts are definitive. In discussion, Amie asked me if I'd read Little House on the Prairie. Now I'm afraid to.