People seem to really like these alarm clocks we brought in, so I went a little deeper into their lineup and purchased a butterfly, a pirate, a dinosaur and a geisha clock. They are priced at $18.95 and $19.95
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Mini Post--New Clocks
People seem to really like these alarm clocks we brought in, so I went a little deeper into their lineup and purchased a butterfly, a pirate, a dinosaur and a geisha clock. They are priced at $18.95 and $19.95
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
What Did You Miss at Last Night's In-Store Lit Group Discussion of Lark and Termite?
At the in-store lit group last night, we discussed Lark and Termite, by Jayne Anne Phillip
s. It's a story set in the 1950's about a teenage girl and her developmentally disabled younger brother in small-town West Virginia. It's a book that received many rave reviews and was shortlisted for the National Book Award. When I made a list of books that I'm embarrassed not to have read, this was on the shortlist.
Raised by their Aunt Nonie and her boyfriend Charlie, Lark and Termite's mom is missing, her dad's whereabouts are unknown, as is his. What we do know is about a decade earlier, Robert Senior was fighting in the Korean War, and
their narrative (from Lark, Termite, and Nonie's perspective) is alternated, along with Older Termite.
What's really great about these discussions is that I get so much out of the books that I don't find in reviews. Someone had to explain to me exactly what was going on with the cat, and explain the parallels between the Korean and West Virginia scenes. Some of us liked the book more than others, which makes sense--how else can you have an interesting conversation?
Our next meeting is Monday, June 7th, where we are reading Colm Tóibín's Brooklyn. And since summer needs at least a hint of escapism, we're reading a literary thriller/mystery, Attica Locke's Black Water Rising. That meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 1st, also at 7 PM.
s. It's a story set in the 1950's about a teenage girl and her developmentally disabled younger brother in small-town West Virginia. It's a book that received many rave reviews and was shortlisted for the National Book Award. When I made a list of books that I'm embarrassed not to have read, this was on the shortlist.Raised by their Aunt Nonie and her boyfriend Charlie, Lark and Termite's mom is missing, her dad's whereabouts are unknown, as is his. What we do know is about a decade earlier, Robert Senior was fighting in the Korean War, and
their narrative (from Lark, Termite, and Nonie's perspective) is alternated, along with Older Termite.What's really great about these discussions is that I get so much out of the books that I don't find in reviews. Someone had to explain to me exactly what was going on with the cat, and explain the parallels between the Korean and West Virginia scenes. Some of us liked the book more than others, which makes sense--how else can you have an interesting conversation?
Our next meeting is Monday, June 7th, where we are reading Colm Tóibín's Brooklyn. And since summer needs at least a hint of escapism, we're reading a literary thriller/mystery, Attica Locke's Black Water Rising. That meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 1st, also at 7 PM.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Even I Browse the Business Table at the Women's Leadership Conference--The Trout Looks Appealing
With a morning to mind our mobile bookstore at the Women's Leadership Conference last Friday, I had the chance to look through a number of book titles that I brought with me. I'm not positive, but I think next year's is scheduled for March 31st, 2011. Mark your calendars.
After a few choice selections, I settled on Jack Trout's Repositioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change, and Crisis (McGraw Hill, 11/09, $24.95). I liked that he questioned the current marketing strategies of several high-profile companies; most of the criticisms in these kinds of books 
are usually after the fact, when the company has gone belly up or is close to failure.
Trout's postioning statement has always been simple and direct. The message has to get to the recipient and be easily processed. And avoid making your message about price, unless you can weather a long battle (Walmart and Southwest were the only winners that came to his mind).
For repositioning, Trout focuses on companies that have had to change their position. Sometimes this has led to companies that have shunned new technology, even when they developed it (Kodak and Xerox come to mind--poor Rochester!), as opposed to Gillette, who never had a problem making their products obsolete.
What he doesn't mention is that Gillette ran into its own problems and still wound up selling out to P&G. And while Digital shunned personal computers and paid the price, IBM didn't and still lost the battle for customers. This leads into another Trout mantra--he hates, hates, hates line extensions.
Oh, and one other thing. New marketing people will always want to make changes. Be careful, or you'll wind up with Pepsi's Tropicana fiasco, where Pepsi tweaked the label away from its brand position. See an older blog post where I discuss the book Squeezed, that exposes the falsehood behind that very "close to fres
h" branding position of Tropicana.
He doesn't like "I'm loving it" and criticizes Continental for moving away from their value proposition. If he'd had his mitts on Midwest, Trout would have said, don't get in price wars, and keep your service up. Nobody listened. Hello, Frontier!
Regarding GM, he thinks Cadillac will never stand for prestige, and can't figure why they held onto the relatively shakey GMC brand. I don't know what it means either. It struck me that Pontiac still had residue of the performance branding. For more on this, read Sixty to Zero, or at least my blog on the book.
Sometimes Trout and Rivkin fault companies for changing, sometimes for not changing. After reading Repositioning, I still wasn't clear of when to follow which strategy. There is also perhaps a little too much referencing of Trout's previous work. But since I link to two old blog posts here, who am I to talk?
are usually after the fact, when the company has gone belly up or is close to failure.Trout's postioning statement has always been simple and direct. The message has to get to the recipient and be easily processed. And avoid making your message about price, unless you can weather a long battle (Walmart and Southwest were the only winners that came to his mind).
For repositioning, Trout focuses on companies that have had to change their position. Sometimes this has led to companies that have shunned new technology, even when they developed it (Kodak and Xerox come to mind--poor Rochester!), as opposed to Gillette, who never had a problem making their products obsolete.
What he doesn't mention is that Gillette ran into its own problems and still wound up selling out to P&G. And while Digital shunned personal computers and paid the price, IBM didn't and still lost the battle for customers. This leads into another Trout mantra--he hates, hates, hates line extensions.
Oh, and one other thing. New marketing people will always want to make changes. Be careful, or you'll wind up with Pepsi's Tropicana fiasco, where Pepsi tweaked the label away from its brand position. See an older blog post where I discuss the book Squeezed, that exposes the falsehood behind that very "close to fres
h" branding position of Tropicana.He doesn't like "I'm loving it" and criticizes Continental for moving away from their value proposition. If he'd had his mitts on Midwest, Trout would have said, don't get in price wars, and keep your service up. Nobody listened. Hello, Frontier!
Regarding GM, he thinks Cadillac will never stand for prestige, and can't figure why they held onto the relatively shakey GMC brand. I don't know what it means either. It struck me that Pontiac still had residue of the performance branding. For more on this, read Sixty to Zero, or at least my blog on the book.
Sometimes Trout and Rivkin fault companies for changing, sometimes for not changing. After reading Repositioning, I still wasn't clear of when to follow which strategy. There is also perhaps a little too much referencing of Trout's previous work. But since I link to two old blog posts here, who am I to talk?
Sunday, May 2, 2010
It's Not All 400 Page Novels--Daniel Reads a Comic Book
I was buying second hand books a few weeks ago, and came across The Best of Josie and the Pussycats. We don't generally have Archie stuff in the store, but surely there's a customer out there who would be as interested in it as I was (I pretty much read the whole thing on my break). While I had read some pre-Pussycats "Josie", knowing full well that Valerie was an African-American variation of an earlier character named Pepper, for example, I had no idea that in the first few issues, Josie's haircut was positively Ronnie Spector-esque. Happily, or perhaps sadly, it sold almost immediately. Josie, I miss you already.
My appetite whetted, it was only a week or so later when we received The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis, by Matt Groening et al, by “Matt Groening” et al (Abrams ComicArts, April 2010, $24.95). It's a nice keepsake package (you had me at "slipcase") that I’ve been looking forward to since Golden Age Flash met the 60’s incarnation and the Flintstones met the Jetsons.
The plotline involves Futurama’s giant brain attackers sending the Planet Express gang into a Simp
sons comic book (the only one still being printed, by the way) where Mayor Quimby is campaigning for mayor against Snowball II. After we get bored of that, a rip in reality sends most of Springfield into the world of New New York.
It’s all good fun, with lots of referencing from old episode plotlines, but mostly, you realize just how similar the shows are, particularly in terms of archetypes. Kent Brockman equals Morbo, Mr. Burns is equivalent to Mom, Groundskeeper Willie begat Scruffy and so forth.
Like the Simpsons movie, it went a little faster than I hoped, but you can always return and try to play who are the famous English icons chasing the town when they eliminate the second amendment, and who is who when the complete works of Stephen King are let loose in New New York.
The other thing that is weird about comics (and have been since I started reading them at six) is that who actually wrote and drew the stories is buried, if revealed at all. I must have had over 500 Archie Comics, but I didn’t learn who Dan DeCarlo was until I was well into adulthood. That said, the script is by Ian Boothby, the pencils by Ian Lloyd, plus being a comic, someone is also responsible for the inks, colors, and letters. What, not a robot?
My appetite whetted, it was only a week or so later when we received The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis, by Matt Groening et al, by “Matt Groening” et al (Abrams ComicArts, April 2010, $24.95). It's a nice keepsake package (you had me at "slipcase") that I’ve been looking forward to since Golden Age Flash met the 60’s incarnation and the Flintstones met the Jetsons.
The plotline involves Futurama’s giant brain attackers sending the Planet Express gang into a Simp
sons comic book (the only one still being printed, by the way) where Mayor Quimby is campaigning for mayor against Snowball II. After we get bored of that, a rip in reality sends most of Springfield into the world of New New York.It’s all good fun, with lots of referencing from old episode plotlines, but mostly, you realize just how similar the shows are, particularly in terms of archetypes. Kent Brockman equals Morbo, Mr. Burns is equivalent to Mom, Groundskeeper Willie begat Scruffy and so forth.
Like the Simpsons movie, it went a little faster than I hoped, but you can always return and try to play who are the famous English icons chasing the town when they eliminate the second amendment, and who is who when the complete works of Stephen King are let loose in New New York.
The other thing that is weird about comics (and have been since I started reading them at six) is that who actually wrote and drew the stories is buried, if revealed at all. I must have had over 500 Archie Comics, but I didn’t learn who Dan DeCarlo was until I was well into adulthood. That said, the script is by Ian Boothby, the pencils by Ian Lloyd, plus being a comic, someone is also responsible for the inks, colors, and letters. What, not a robot?
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Read Greg's Post on Receiving
We don't post quite as often in The Boswellians, though we are working to post at least weekly. 
For some reason, my habit of waking up at 4:30 in the morning and thinking, "This is the perfect time to write a couple of blog posts" doesn't hold sway with some of my gang, who...have lives.
That said, several booksellers' posts have gotten the nod to get national pickup in a trade newsletter called Shelf Awareness. This great recent post by Greg on his move to the receiving room is just the latest. If you don't read it regularly, here's the link.
For some reason, my habit of waking up at 4:30 in the morning and thinking, "This is the perfect time to write a couple of blog posts" doesn't hold sway with some of my gang, who...have lives.That said, several booksellers' posts have gotten the nod to get national pickup in a trade newsletter called Shelf Awareness. This great recent post by Greg on his move to the receiving room is just the latest. If you don't read it regularly, here's the link.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wearable Art Show Today--Tell Mary Anne I Told You to Visit!
Note: Once again, I got my dates wrong. The wearable art show is Saturday, May 1st!
It feels like I've seen our good friend Mary Anne from the Shorewood Women's Club almost every day this week. We applauded Paul Salsini on Tuesday and cheered on Sue Mill
er on Wednesday. Well now it's Saturday, and it's time to go see Mary Anne.
More details below:
A Variety of Vendors, From Jewelry to Fashion,
Silk—Appliqued Clothing—Purses—Felt—
Shawls—Scarves—Fabric Art
Scholarship Benefit
Silent Auction—Prizes Every Half Hour—Coffee
and Bake Sale--$2 Admission
Questions? Call 414-964-2007 or 414-228-8199
It feels like I've seen our good friend Mary Anne from the Shorewood Women's Club almost every day this week. We applauded Paul Salsini on Tuesday and cheered on Sue Mill
er on Wednesday. Well now it's Saturday, and it's time to go see Mary Anne.She's helping with the Wearable Art Show at the Shorewood Village Center, downstairs from the Shorewood Public Library. That's 3920 N. Murray Avenue, just where we consponsored D.J. MacHale on Tuesday evening (also a fun event).
The show is being put on by the GFWC Shorewood Woman's Club in conjunction with the Shorewood Library Friends. Visit today, May 1st, from 9:30 to 4 PM.
More details below:
A Variety of Vendors, From Jewelry to Fashion,
Silk—Appliqued Clothing—Purses—Felt—
Shawls—Scarves—Fabric Art
Scholarship Benefit
Silent Auction—Prizes Every Half Hour—Coffee
and Bake Sale--$2 Admission
Questions? Call 414-964-2007 or 414-228-8199
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Urban Planner is a Good Career Choice--You Heard it Here First
The May issue of U.S. News and World Report features a short interview with Michael Bayer, who recently spoke at Boswell for the book Becoming an Urban Planner. It's part of t
he feature "Top Careers for the New Economy." Other good careers include plumber, curator and meterologist. Bookseller is not on the list.
he feature "Top Careers for the New Economy." Other good careers include plumber, curator and meterologist. Bookseller is not on the list.The story isn't online, but it is available in the printed magazines, which is at bookstores like ours.
How Did Things Go This Week?
I'm a little too anxious today to come up with a cohesive post. We've got five offsites this week, and I've been at four of them. Find me tomorrow at the Women's Leadership Conference at th
e Pfister.
e Pfister.We've had a nice week wit The Tortoise and the Hare. I talked it up to two folks from the Jane Austen Society at the Library Literary Lunch, and today one of my favorite authors ordered a copy from us.
We had a mini-bookstore at the Wisconsin Club. In addition to the above-mentioned Tortoise, titles we sold in multiples included Yarn, Little Bee, and Mu
rder on the Eiffel Tower. And Sue Miller hand-sold a few copies of Brian Morton's Starting Out in the Evening. I'm not sure why I brought that instead of Breakable You, but since it worked, I'm not questioning.
rder on the Eiffel Tower. And Sue Miller hand-sold a few copies of Brian Morton's Starting Out in the Evening. I'm not sure why I brought that instead of Breakable You, but since it worked, I'm not questioning.Miller's other recommendations:
The Privileges, by Jonathan Dee
Too Much Happiness, by Alice Munro
and
Blame, by Michelle Huneven, which is hard to find in hardcover right now, and releases in paperback May 25th. (Editor's Note: and by this I mean that the book was out of stock at our nearby wholesalers).
Miller's talk on The Lake Shore Limited was very well received! Thanks to all involved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
