Between the Covers

"There's a quiet storm brewing on the horizon, and I think it's about to come blowing in," says Pete

2012-01-27T06:00:00.002-07:00

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.

Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.

Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts--from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a "pretend extrovert."

This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how introverts see themselves.

Pete says:
"There are times when a quiet person is accused of being anti-social. And it's not like you can zing back with 'Oh yeah, well you're pro-social.' In all likelihood it'll be taken as a compliment, as in 'Thanks, I've always been a people person.' As a kid, I often got the question 'Why are you so quiet?' And as a kid I wasn't able to formulate that being quiet wasn't a disease, so my standard answer was simply 'I don't know.' So you grow up, and sometimes you don't fit in, and you wonder, 'Maybe I am broken in some way?' Quiet is a book I wish was around 25 years ago. This is a book for the quiet person you are and for the quiet person you know. They're not broken, and in most cases in no need of therapy or medication. They're doing just fine, perhaps even thriving.

A quiet person will not rush the podium when it comes to public speaking, but are often times better able to express themselves through the written word or through art. Though lacking in the gift of gab, their listening skills are perhaps more astute. Sometimes introverted personalities and extroverted personalities seek each other out as in an 'opposites attract' scenario. They complement each other nicely in many situations. But, sooner or later, the extrovert will hear the call of the wild and want to party, while the introvert may seek nothing more than a quiet night with a good book. The author suggests many good compromising strategies for introvert/extrovert couples and also describes helpful techniques for raising quiet children. These kids probably won't end up auditioning for 'American Idol' or joining the cast of any reality-based television shows, but they're readers and thinkers and artists and engineers and scientists. They keep their heads down but work just as hard as anyone.

I recommend this book to parents, teachers, business leaders, and anyone else seeking a better understanding of reserved individuals, and learning ways to better utilize their many talents, often unseen and especially unheard. There's a quiet storm brewing on the horizon, and I think it's about to come blowing in."

This Acclaimed NY Chef Left Culinary Fame for the Farm

2012-01-27T05:00:00.002-07:00

In this extraordinary new book Suvir merges his highly refined spice sensibility with the great produce of his adopted land. He also harvests favorite recipes from friends and worldwide travels such as the Farmhouse Crispy-Creamy Potatoes roasted with herbs, which he cleverly calls Herbes de Hebron as a riff on Herbes de Provence. And I was overjoyed to find the recipe for Manchurian Cauliflower, one of my favorite dishes at his New York City restaurant Devi, guaranteed to convert a professed detractor of the vegetable. Also gracing the book is a very special biscuit recipe—one that Suvir made for our breakfast along with his home-made jams. The secret to these exceptionally tender and buttery biscuits is that compared to most, they have half the cream and double the butter! Consummate host that he is, Suvir sent my father home with an ample supply of biscuits and jam, extending the visit back to the comforts of his own home.

This book is blessed with many glorious photographs, by the brilliantly talented Ben Fink, which illustrate the recipes and lifestyle that Suvir and Charlie share with sincere and engaging eloquence. For me every word rings true because it perfectly reflects my two visits to the farm. Once again I saw the huge golden white rooster who prefers to hang out with the bucks (male goats) to his own hens but sits trustingly and contentedly in Suvir’s embrace, and the alpacas whose lovely beige and brown furs become exquisitely soft yarn for knitting in the cold winter months and about whom Suvir says: ”They protect the goats and sheep, amuse us with their personalities, and enrich us with their fiber.”

Suvir is one of those rare individuals who possess a magnetic personality. All are drawn to him and want nothing more than to remain by his side to bask in the dynamic warmth, humor, generosity, and love that he radiates. But there is another side to Suvir—that of a sharply clever and playful master of the tease and please. He is full of surprises and his recipes reflect all of these enticing qualities. How wonderful to have this book by one’s side to cook from and to dream of an idyllic Masala Farm existence.

--excerpt from the Forward to the book, written by Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible and 8 other cookbooks

Read an interview with Suvir Saran from Top Chef Masters.

Jackie says:
"This is an absolutely beautiful cookbook, with eclectic recipes and plenty of farm stories making a tasty side dish to the clear culinary skills. I can't believe he got thrown off of Top Chef!"

TC Tidbit: Steinbeck on Falling In Love

2012-01-27T04:00:00.002-07:00

Read the letter he wrote his son HERE.

This Book Made Lynn Both Laugh and Ponder

2012-01-26T06:00:00.004-07:00

Boyet Hernandez is a small man with a big American dream when he arrives in New York in 2002, fresh out of design school in Manila. With dubious financing and visions of Fashion Week runways, he sets up shop in a Brooklyn toothpick factory, pursuing his goals with monkish devotion (distractions of a voluptuous undergrad not withstanding). But mere weeks after a high-end retail order promises to catapult his (B)oy label to the big time, there's a knock on the door in the middle of the night: the flamboyant ex-Catholic Boyet is brought to Gitmo, handed a Koran, and locked away indefinitely on suspicion of being linked to a terrorist plot. Now, from his 6' x 8' cell, Boy prepares for the trial of his life with this intimate confession, even as his belief in American justice begins to erode.

With a nod to Junot Diaz and a wink to Gary Shteyngart, Alex Gilvarry's first novel explores some of the most serious issues of our time with dark eviscerating wit.

Lynn says:
"I just finished the simultaneously delightfully funny and dead serious debut novel, From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant by Gilvarry and would be remiss not to give you a heads-up that this book is gonna be HOT! The primary voice in the narrative is that of Boyet R. Hernandez, Filipino immigrant to NYC and aesthete extraordinaire, who unwittingly lands himself in Gitmo due to a seemingly innocuous business decision. Though a passionately talented fashion designer for women's upscale clothing, 'Boy' agrees to fabricate two expensive suits for a somewhat shady, but disarming male character who.... well, let's just say the liason leads to more scrutiny by Homeland Security than anyone might ever want in their life. The way this writer brings together the world of haute couture and the world of extraordinary renditions and satirizes all the unknown known unknowns is both a wickedly funny and a scathingly serious piece of fiction sure to elicit accolades comparing the writer to Kafka, Heller and Vonnegut and to be a book group choice for lively discussion. Michael Hastings, whose article in Rolling Stone magazine on General McChrystal caused such a stir says 'Finally, a young American novelist who has the guts to confront the absurdity of the last decade...'-- I agree. Gilvarry's 'Boy', with his book-length confession (did I mention he was raised Catholic?) in preparation for his upcoming tribunal, tells all (all the known knowns anyway) about his pre-rendition fashionista tribe and his post-'Overwhelming Event' fellow prisoners, guards and interrogators (and with no small helping of the coyote wisdom witnessing with an eye obsessively accustomed to nuance, color and drama) and had me laughing out loud as well as stopping in my tracks to ponder the human tragedy of it all by the final chapters."

Joe Pike and Elvis Cole Are Back!!!

2012-01-26T05:00:00.002-07:00

When the police tell a wealthy industrialist that her missing son has faked his own kidnapping, she hires Elvis Cole and Joe Pike-and Cole soon determines that it was no fake. The boy and his secret girlfriend have been taken, and are now lost in the gray and changing world of the professional border kidnappers who prey not only on innocent victims but also on one another-buying, selling, and stealing victims like commodities. Fortunately, the kidnappers don't yet know who the boy is, but when Cole goes undercover to try to buy the two hostages back, he himself is taken and disappears. Now it is up to Pike to retrace Cole's steps, burning through the hard and murderous world of human traffickers . . . before it is too late.

Meet the author yourself tomorrow night at 7:30 at our Colfax Avenue store.

TC Tidbit: Cormack McCarthy, Screenwriter!

2012-01-26T04:00:00.002-07:00

Read more about it at deadline.com

Jackie Wants You To Give This Unusual Debut Novel A Chance

2012-01-25T06:00:00.003-07:00

Isabel is a single, twentysomething thrift-store shopper and collector of remnants, things cast off or left behind by others. Glaciers follows Isabel through a day in her life in which work with damaged books in the basement of a library, unrequited love for the former soldier who fixes her computer, and dreams of the perfect vintage dress move over a backdrop of deteriorating urban architecture and the imminent loss of the glaciers she knew as a young girl in Alaska.

Glaciers unfolds internally, the action shaped by Isabel's sense of history, memory, and place, recalling the work of writers such as Jean Rhys, Marguerite Duras, and Virginia Woolf. For Isabel, the fleeting moments of one day can reveal an entire life. While she contemplates loss and the intricate fissures it creates in our lives, she accumulates the stories--the remnants--of those around her and she begins to tell her own story.

Read the first chapter courtesy of Poets&Writers.

Jackie says:
"This is a very interesting debut novel told in short vignettes. The main character is a twenty-something woman whose life story is played out in a single day for the reader through her memories, her encounters, what she observes, what she wishes. It is a quiet story told with great understatement and a fluid way with words, but with astonishingly deep meaning floating in the gentle episodes. It's difficult to describe, but a pleasure to read. Give it a chance."

The Power of the Ordinary Person

2012-01-25T05:00:00.001-07:00

There are few books that attempt to interpret the world and how it is run. The Leaderless Revolution offers a refreshing and potent contrast to the Panglossian optimism of Tom Friedman's The World is Flat but, like that book, it offers a way of understanding the world of the 21st century that is both clear and easily comprehensible. Carne Ross takes different angles on contemporary issues - economics, politics, the state of democracy, the environment and terrorism - wrapping them into a unified explanation of how money and power function to control the lives of the earth's inhabitants, such that they feel powerless to affect their collective future. It seems that mankind has settled upon liberal democracy as the ideal form of government. Its triumph with the collapse of communism signalled the end of ideological struggle and thus of history. The Leaderless Revolution will show however that even in democracies, many if not most of the population feel that they are excluded from any agency over the issues that most trouble them, while governments appear less and less able to influence the global problems that threaten our peace and comforts. Mining the rich but little-examined histories of both cosmopolitanism and anarchism, The Leaderless Revolution shows how both ideas, in combination, are relevant and necessary for the problems of today. Not only an antidote to our global crises; Carne Ross offers, moreover, a route to fulfillment and self-realisation.

TC Tidbit: Speilberg Talks About "Warhorse" and His Upcoming Movies (based on books!)

2012-01-25T04:00:00.003-07:00

Read the interview HERE.

Books he reveals as part of his movie making plans:

Miki Loved Curling Up With This Book

2012-01-24T06:00:00.004-07:00

Once upon a time, Hudson knew exactly what her future looked like. Then a betrayal changed her life and knocked her dreams to the ground. Now she’s a girl who doesn’t believe in second chances, a girl who stays under the radar by baking cupcakes at her mom’s diner and obsessing over what might have been.

So when things start looking up and she has another shot at her dreams, Hudson is equal parts hopeful and terrified. Of course, this is also the moment a cute, sweet guy walks into her life—and starts serving up some seriously mixed signals. She’s got a lot on her plate, and for a girl who’s been burned before, risking it all is easier said than done.

It’s time for Hudson to ask herself what she really wants, and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Because in a place where opportunities are fleeting, she knows this chance may very well be her last....

Miki says:

"Every winter, I have the same problem. What to read? I have all of this time inside with a comfy old chair my grandpa gave me, but never seem to find the right book for the occasion. When it is cold and snowy outside, I want winter themed book, a creamy cup of coffee, and a thick blanket. I want escape into a cozy world that is not mine. Books about summer or the beach just don't do it for me in the winter. Luckily, Sarah Ockler's newest novel landed on my desk between snowstorms. I could not wait to get home, kick off my snow boots, and get to reading. Finally, my ideal winter reading had arrived.

I am happy to report that Ockler did not disappoint. She delivered a novel full of winter delight. Her characters are talented, smart, and mature. Although the main characters are strong and easy to fall in love with, the smaller characters can steal your heart just as easily. Hudson's little brother, known as Bug, is just such a wonderful addition to the story. Every time he appeared in the story, I found myself smiling. If anyone knows a kid like this one, please let me know. I must adopt and/or babysit him.

The storyline was had the typical love, lust, friendships, and problems, but somehow it is still original and unpredictable. Like the characters, the story is complicated but at times, seems so simple. Ockler really has a way of balancing the elements of her writing.

Lastly, if the hockey boys, ice skating, and story don't hook you in, the chapter titles will. Every chapter begins with heavenly cupcake ideas. I can't wait to try some of them out. Yum!"

What Happens To Society When Your Children's Language Is Killing You?

2012-01-24T05:00:00.003-07:00

In The Flame Alphabet, the most maniacally gifted writer of our generation delivers a work of heartbreak and horror, a novel about how far we will go, and the sorrows we will endure, in order to protect our families.

A terrible epidemic has struck the country and the sound of children’s speech has become lethal. Radio transmissions from strange sources indicate that people are going into hiding. All Sam and Claire need to do is look around the neighborhood: In the park, parents wither beneath the powerful screams of their children. At night, suburban side streets become routes of shameful escape for fathers trying to get outside the radius of affliction.

With Claire nearing collapse, it seems their only means of survival is to flee from their daughter, Esther, who laughs at her parents’ sickness, unaware that in just a few years she, too, will be susceptible to the language toxicity. But Sam and Claire find it isn’t so easy to leave the daughter they still love, even as they waste away from her malevolent speech. On the eve of their departure, Claire mysteriously disappears, and Sam, determined to find a cure for this new toxic language, presses on alone into a world beyond recognition.

The Flame Alphabet invites the question: What is left of civilization when we lose the ability to communicate with those we love? Both morally engaged and wickedly entertaining, a gripping page-turner as strange as it is moving, this intellectual horror story ensures Ben Marcus’s position in the first rank of American novelists.

Meet the author tonight 1/25/12 at 7:30 at our Colfax Avenue store. He will be there to read and discuss his book.

TC Tidbit: The State of the Graphic Journalism Art

2012-01-24T04:00:00.002-07:00

from our friends at graphicnovelreporter.com.

Dispatch From The Field: Joe and "The Face Thief"

2012-01-23T06:00:00.005-07:00

The real reason we have faces, she thought,
is to hold back what we’re thinking from the world.

Eli Gottlieb’s previous novel, Now You See Him, was acclaimed by reviewers as “irresistible…moving” (New York Times Book Review), “a triumph…of literary suspense” (Los Angeles Times), and “gorgeous” (USA Today). With The Face Thief , Gottlieb returns with a driving, compulsively readable novel that probes the wellsprings of human greed and of loyalty beset by temptation.

Gottlieb introduces us to the mystery of the charismatic Margot, a promising journalist who morphs—with stunning panache—from a high-achieving affluent twenty-something into a grifter making her living by preying on the weaknesses of men. Gifted with an unerring ability to “read” people due to her studies of the ancient Chinese art of face reading, and able to rearrange her look and persona with uncanny skill to fit the social situation, she is an avenging angel, shattering marriages and draining bank accounts.

What drives her in her quest to deceive and disarm? In exploring this question, The Face Thief toggles fluidly forward and back in time, drawing vivid portraits of Margot’s rocky childhood and her adult victims: an amiable, newly married man enticed into a catastrophic fraud; an esteemed teacher outwitted by his most dangerous student; and a well-meaning New York City cop tripped up by his belief in redemption.

Ingeniously constructed and exquisitely written, The Face Thief swirls a hypnotic dance of predator and prey, creating a contemporary landscape where the educated are violent, the beautiful ugly, and the well-intentioned hapless. And yet we never give way to despair because the protagonists of the book push back against the maelstrom and attempt tirelessly to right their toppled lives.

Joe says:
"This is a novel where nothing is as it seems. Following three characters whose lives are linked through deceit, failed trust, and crime. There is Margot, a woman who knows how to use her beauty and men's desire to get ahead in life. But has her luck run out? She fell (or was she pushed?) down a staircase and is recuperating in a hospital, visited by a man who may be helping her, just as he may be falling in love with her. Then there is the Lawrence, the man who teaches Margot how to read faces. After his marriage is nearly ruined, does he realize that she doesn't really need the lessons, and he's the one being played. And finally, there's John Potash, who, in an effort to increase his sizable nest egg, ends up losing everything to Margot's deceit. This novel is a thriller, and an excellent one at that. Gottlieb tells the story from differing points of view, and as the characters' lives further entangle, the pages really start to fly by. As much as I loved Now You See Him, I loved The Face Thief more. Eli Gottlieb continues to thrill the reader with his writing - crisp, thick with meaning and light on the eye. I was fascinated by the passages about face reading, entranced by Dan France's bedside manner, and rooting for each of the characters to sort the mess their lives had become and somehow get it right. I enjoyed this book more and more as I read, and was a little sad when it ended. Not disappointed in the ending in the least, but to leave these characters behind."

Come meet the author tomorrow night (Tuesday, Jan. 24) at 7:30pm at our Colfax Avenue store.

Six and a Half Months To Prove A Very Important Point

2012-01-23T05:00:00.002-07:00

It started as a school project…but turned into so much more.

Growing up, Gaby Rodriguez was often told she would end up a teen mom. After all, her mother and her older sisters had gotten pregnant as teenagers; from an outsider’s perspective, it was practically a family tradition. Gaby had ambitions that didn’t include teen motherhood. But she wondered: how would she be treated if she “lived down” to others' expectations? Would everyone ignore the years she put into being a good student and see her as just another pregnant teen statistic with no future? These questions sparked Gaby’s school project: faking her own pregnancy as a high school senior to see how her family, friends, and community would react. What she learned changed her life forever, and made international headlines in the process.

In The Pregnancy Project, Gaby details how she was able to fake her own pregnancy—hiding the truth from even her siblings and boyfriend’s parents—and reveals all that she learned from the experience. But more than that, Gaby’s story is about fighting stereotypes, and how one girl found the strength to come out from the shadow of low expectations to forge a bright future for herself.

The Lifetime Channel has created a movie of Gaby's story. It will premier on January 28, 2012.

TC Tidbit: 10 Legendary Bad Boys of Literature

2012-01-23T04:00:00.002-07:00

from our friends at flavorwire.com.

When A Book Takes Over A Life, Hilarity Ensues

2012-01-22T06:00:00.002-07:00

After a college graduate with a history of hapless jobs reads Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island, she is dumbstruck by the timid design of her life. Convinced that Stevenson's book is cosmically intended for her, she redesigns her life according to its core values: boldness, resolution, independence, and horn-blowing.

Treasure Island!!! is the first title in the new Tonga Books imprint, headed by Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones, and published by Europa Editions.

Jackie says:
"This is about an obsession with a book that goes wayyyyyyy to far. The 'heroine' of the book (who never gives us her name), a 25 year old just drifting about without any sort of ambition but a history of crappy jobs, gets goaded into reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. She gets swept up in the sense of adventure and decides to live her own life based on what she deems are the 'Core Values' of the book: Boldness, Resolution, Independence and Horn-Blowing. And so her own adventure begins--with some hilarious results and no few character quirks that left me alternately wanting to straggle her, laughing out loud or cringing--sometimes all at the same time. This is another interesting debut novel by an award winning essayist and well worth the time to read in the name of good fun."

Bean's Back, Looking For The Cure

2012-01-22T05:00:00.002-07:00

Ender’s Shadow explores the stars in this all-new novel...

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, Bean flees to the stars with three of his children--the three who share the engineered genes that gave him both hyper-intelligence and a short, cruel physical life. The time dilation granted by the speed of their travel gives Earth’s scientists generations to seek a cure, to no avail. In time, they are forgotten--a fading ansible signal speaking of events lost to Earth’s history. But the Delphikis are about to make a discovery that will let them save themselves, and perhaps all of humanity in days to come.

For there in space before them lies a derelict Formic colony ship. Aboard it, they will find both death and wonders--the life support that is failing on their own ship, room to grow, and labs in which to explore their own genetic anomaly and the mysterious disease that killed the ship’s colony.

TC Tidbit: How To Organize Your Book Shelves

2012-01-22T04:00:00.002-07:00

from the folks at apartmenttherapy.com

"Move over Bond and Bourne," says Jackie

2012-01-21T06:00:00.002-07:00

A former soldier turned movie star turned spy must stop a catastrophic nuclear weapons deal.

This gripping thriller from Thomas Caplan propels readers around the globe-from Hollywood to Rome, the Black Sea to the Mediterranean-and to the very brink of nuclear abyss.

The novel's charismatic hero, former covert operative Ty Hunter, has become, almost by accident, the number one film star in the world. When he is recruited on a clandestine mission to thwart the transfer of nuclear warheads into rogue hands, he must deploy every skill he has as an actor, soldier, and spy. Donning his fame as a disguise, Ty matches wits and muscle with the enigmatic billionaire Ian Santal and his nefarious protégé Philip Frost-two supremely sophisticated adversaries- even as he falls in love with the entrancing young woman closest to them both, the jewelry designer Isabella Cavill.

In prose that is both elegant and powerful, The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen gives us a breakneck parable of good and evil-and a hero in the tradition of James Bond and Jason Bourne, who is sure to become an icon of the genre.

Read an interview with the author about the book, and about his former roommate, Bill Clinton.

Jackie says:
"Move over Bond and Bourne, there's a new badass spy in town. Meet movie star Ty Hunter, who is actually an ex-special ops kind of guy. He tracks the nukes, fights the bag guys, loves the girl and generally has one heck of a time that all started with the Cannes Film Festival and a glamorous party on a yacht. This is fast paced thrill ride and has a definite cinematic quality to it that keeps the pages turning."

It's All About Chance

2012-01-21T05:00:00.004-07:00

When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends.

Through a richly conceived and colorful cast of characters, Penelope Lively explores the powerful role of chance in people's lives and deftly illustrates how our paths can be altered irrevocably by someone we will never even meet. Brought to life in her hallmark graceful prose and full of keen insights into human nature, How It All Began is an engaging, contemporary tale that is sure to strike a chord with her legion of loyal fans as well as new readers. A writer of rare wisdom, elegance, and humor, Lively is a consummate storyteller whose gifts are on full display in this masterful work.

TC Tibit: "Killing Lincoln" To Become a National Geographic Documentary

2012-01-21T04:00:00.002-07:00

Jackie says, "This January is a HOT month for YA releases. Here's just a few!"

2012-01-20T06:00:00.007-07:00

"This is the second book in the Across the Universe trilogy, and the story moves at a tremendous pace. Things are more and more unsettled as the population comes off the controlling drub Phydus. Violence and political unrest are increasing, as is the death count, and Elder and Amy are in a race to find and figure out mysterious clues left by a now frozen criminal that might help them save the ship. There are many major revelations as the action ramps up, with one heck of a cliff-hanging conclusion. Revis picks up exactly where she left off in Across the Universe and does not disappoint."

"This is a fantastically creative sci-fi tale that follows the very basic story line of Cinderella, but with considerable futuristic upgrades that add to the story in a very colorful way. For instance, Cinder is a cyborg, though she tries to keep that a secret because she's got a tough enough life as it is without dealing with a bunch of cultural disapproval and disdain. She get's enough of that from her guardian/step-mother and her oldest step-sister (the younger one isn't so bad). She's the top mechanic in the land, and the family's only real source of support, though at home she's treated more like a servant than a bread-winner. Then she accidentally meets the Prince, her little step-sister becomes deathly ill with the plague that has ravaged the planet, and Cinder get's sold off to be a medical guinea pig for the cure. And this is just the beginning of the adventure. This is the first book of the Lunar Chronicles, and I predict that it is going to be a smash hit. Luckily, there are three more books coming, Scarlett (2013), Cress (2014) and Winter (2015). Boy, it's gonna be hard to wait for them!"

"Amanda Hocking is one of those publishing prodigies--she sold over a million copies of her self-published books and has a huge on-line following. After reading "Switched", now being published by St. Martin's Griffin, I understand why. This is great stuff. She has created the world of the Trylle, the modern day, PC, not your Grimm character trolls, who secretly trade their own babies for human babies, then collect them again once they've grown up and have begun to manifest powers. Trylles have all sorts of possible powers,many related to the natural world, but mixed breeding and young Trylles refusing to remain in the isolated Trylle communities are threatening Trylles everywhere, and the present queen is not going to allow that. Switched concerns Wendy, a 17 year old who suddenly finds herself in mysterious danger and is whisked away by a Trylle tracker only to find out that she is, in fact, the Princess, and there are many, many expectations placed upon her because of that. And, it seems, she is one of the most powerful Trylles of all. Thank heavens Book 2, Thorn, is coming out in February, and Book 3, Ascend, is coming out in April, so we all can find out what happens to the reluctant Princess and her people--human and Trylle."

A New Series Is Born From Old School Crimes

2012-01-20T05:00:00.002-07:00

Introducing a new historical crime series that The New York Times Book Review called "CSI: Georgian England" and Tess Gerritsen called "chillingly memorable"

A body in a field. A murder in a music shop. A missing heir to a great estate. These three seemingly separate mysteries prove to be intimately intertwined in Imogen Robertson's thrilling debut novel Instruments of Darkness, an engrossing blend of eighteenth-century history, forensic science, and classic suspense.

The year is 1780. Bold, unconventional navy wife Harriet Westerman finds the body of an unidentified man in the fields of her country manor. The only clues to his death lie in his hand: a torn slip of paper and a ring with the crest of Thornleigh Hall, the neighboring estate. Years ago, the heir to the hall ran away, never to be heard of again, and the family—now only a crippled father, his whorish new wife, and his drunkard son—slowly fell into disrepute. At the same time, London is seized by riots, but widower Alexander Adams has a happy home and a successful music shop. Then, without warning, Adams is murdered in broad daylight—in front of his two young children—and without any apparent motive. Hidden away in the safety of a friend's house, the two children mourn the loss of their father while living in fear that the murderer will return for them.

Determined to solve the murder, Harriet turns to the one person who can help her. Gabriel Crowther—anatomist and recluse—has exactly the scientific knowledge and disregard for the conventions of society needed to uncover the truth. Despite his solitary life, Crowther has an astute understanding of human nature and enjoys the intellectual challenge that the crime presents. This, combined with Harriet's keen empathy and sense of justice, makes them a formidable pair, unrelenting in their pursuit of the truth. Yet their dogged determination unearths more than even they anticipated, threatening to reveal Crowther's own dark secret and risking the security and happiness of Harriet's entire family.

From squires to scullery maids, the grime of London to grand estates, Imogen Robertson has created a world rich in period detail and rife with dramatic tension. She is a brilliant new voice in the world of historical suspense, and with Instruments of Darkness she offers a web of intrigue, false clues, and macabre science, and the novel's shocking final twist will leave readers talking—and clamoring for more.

TC Tidbit: USA Today's List of Books Winter Books To Watch For

2012-01-20T04:00:00.007-07:00

read the list HERE.

Cathy's Top Ten of 2011 List

2012-01-19T06:00:00.002-07:00

Do You Have A Moment?

2012-01-19T05:00:00.005-07:00

From the creators of Six-Word Memoirs comes The Moment, a collection of personal stories from writers both famous and obscure revealing how a single instant changed their lives forever. An innocuous decision, an unforeseen accident, a chance conversation, a tag sale, a terrorist strike, a tweet . . . sometimes all it takes is a single moment to redirect the course of an entire life.

The Moment unveils everyday people’s inner lives in narratives of all shapes and sizes, with stories from six to 1,000 words, photographs, comics, illustrations, handwritten letters, and more. It’s enough to change your life forever.

Read an interview with Editor Larry Smith about the book.

Jackie says:
"I'm a huge fan of Larry Smith and the books that he puts out, as well as Smith Magazine. I was delighted to see this book on my desk a little while back, and I've been sipping from it ever since. I can only read a few of the 'moments' at a time, because they are sometimes profound, or heart-breaking, or hilarious, and they all need to be savored. I've also spent a lot of time thinking about the 'moments' in my life, which one would be THE one, and if I would ever be as brave as these people about sharing it. This is great book to start out a new year on, though, really, it's a great book PERIOD."

TC Tidbit: Word and Film Takes A Look At Some Books to Film Tough Ladies

2012-01-19T04:00:00.002-07:00

See who they are talking about HERE.

Judy B.'s Best of 2011 List: Young Adult Edition

2012-01-18T06:00:00.002-07:00

Click on the book covers to learn more about each book.

Love The Show "Downton Abbey" on PBS? We Think You'll Like These Books Too

2012-01-18T05:00:00.002-07:00

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration and setting for Julian Fellowes’s Emmy Award-winning PBS show, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war.

Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home. Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman.

This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.

In 1928, Rosina Harrison arrived at the illustrious household of the Astor family to take up her new position as personal maid to the infamously temperamental Lady Nancy Astor, who sat in Parliament, entertained royalty, and traveled the world. "She's not a lady as you would understand a lady" was the butler's ominous warning. But what no one expected was that the iron-willed Lady Astor was about to meet her match in the no-nonsense, whip-smart girl from the country.

For 35 years, from the parties thrown for royalty and trips across the globe, to the air raids during WWII, Rose was by Lady Astor's side and behind the scenes, keeping everything running smoothly. In charge of everything from the clothes and furs to the baggage to the priceless diamond "sparklers," Rose was closer to Lady Astor than anyone else. In her decades of service she received one £5 raise, but she traveled the world in style and retired with a lifetime's worth of stories. Like Gosford Park and Downton Abbey, ROSE is a captivating insight into the great wealth 'upstairs' and the endless work 'downstairs', but it is also the story of an unlikely decades-long friendship that grew between Her Ladyship and her spirited Yorkshire maid.

Trying to help a woman in distress, World War I nurse and accidental sleuth Bess Crawford learns that no good deed goes unpunished

When battlefield nurse Bess Crawford returns from France for a well-earned Christmas leave, she finds a bruised and shivering woman huddled in the doorway of her London residence. The woman has nowhere to turn, and propelled by a firm sense of duty, Bess takes her in.

Once inside Bess’s flat, the woman reveals that a quarrel with her husband erupted into violence, yet she wants to return home—if Bess will go with her to Sussex. Realizing that the woman is suffering from a concussion, Bess gives up a few precious days of leave to travel with her. But she soon discovers that this is a good deed with unforeseeable consequences.

What Bess finds at Vixen Hill is a house of mourning. The woman’s family has gathered for a memorial service for the elder son, who died of war wounds. Her husband, home on compassionate leave, is tense, tormented by jealousy and his own guilty conscience.

Then, when a troubled houseguest is found dead, Bess herself becomes a prime suspect in the case. This murder will lead her to a dangerous quest in war-torn France, an unexpected ally, and a startling revelation that puts her in jeopardy before a vicious killer can be exposed.

On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip of Mount Everest’s North Col. George Mallory, thirty-seven, was Britain’s finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a young Oxford scholar of twenty-two with little previous mountaineering experience. Neither of them returned.

In this magisterial work of history and adventure, based on more than a decade of prodigious research in British, Canadian, and European archives, and months in the field in Nepal and Tibet, Wade Davis vividly re-creates British climbers’ epic attempts to scale Mount Everest in the early 1920s. With new access to letters and diaries, Davis recounts the heroic efforts of George Mallory and his fellow climbers to conquer the mountain in the face of treacherous terrain and furious weather. Into the Silence sets their remarkable achievements in sweeping historical context: Davis shows how the exploration originated in nineteenth-century imperial ambitions, and he takes us far beyond the Himalayas to the trenches of World War I, where Mallory and his generation found themselves and their world utterly shattered. In the wake of the war that destroyed all notions of honor and decency, the Everest expeditions, led by these scions of Britain’s elite, emerged as a symbol of national redemption and hope.

Beautifully written and rich with detail, Into the Silence is a classic account of exploration and endurance, and a timeless portrait of an extraordinary generation of adventurers, soldiers, and mountaineers the likes of which we will never see again.

A lavish look at the real world--both the secret history and the behind-the-scenes drama--of the spellbinding Emmy Award-winning Masterpiece TV series Downton Abbey

April 1912. The sun is rising behind Downton Abbey, a great and splendid house in a great and splendid park. So secure does it appear that it seems as if the way it represents will last for another thousand years. It won't.

Millions of American viewers were enthralled by the world of Downton Abbey, the mesmerizing TV drama of the aristocratic Crawley family--and their servants--on the verge of dramatic change. On the eve of Season 2 of the TV presentation, this gorgeous book--illustrated with sketches and research from the production team, as well as on-set photographs from both seasons--takes us even deeper into that world, with fresh insights into the story and characters as well as the social history.

Eric Horne served as a butler in some of the great English country manors from the 1860s until just after World War I, when many of the families whose heirs died in battle were forced to sell off their homes. Born in Southampton, Horne came from a humble family who valued education. Horne excelled in school and wished to go to sea, but lacking his parents’ permission, he instead ended up as a footboy for a local household. Over the years, Horne moved up in the service of the aristocracy: his goal was to become butler to the king of England, a position he very nearly secured. He did end up in the service of several distinguished households for many decades, and upon his retirement in 1922, he decided to write his memoir. Horne is a unique voice; not only did he have intimate contact with his employers and the household staff, he also possessed literary talent, so that his account provides authentic detail as well as shrewd—and often witty—views of the aristocracy, the servants, and their activities. Horne is not sentimental though; he does not think that he used his life wisely, having never learned a true trade. He reveals the plight of the servant class, where once a butler lost his employment—particularly following the devastation of World War I—he was likely to end up in a poorhouse, because employers did not usually provide pensions and servants were rarely able to save enough money to survive on their own. What the Butler Winked At is a fascinating and essential account of life in a country house during the height of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

At the outset of the 1870s, the British aristocracy could rightly consider themselves the most fortunate people on earth: they held the lion's share of land, wealth, and power in the world's greatest empire. By the end of the 1930s they had lost not only a generation of sons in the First World War, but also much of their prosperity, prestige, and political significance.
Deftly orchestrating an enormous array of documents and letters, facts, and statistics, David Cannadine shows how this shift came about--and how it was reinforced in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Astonishingly learned, lucidly written, and sparkling with wit, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy is a landmark study that dramatically changes our understanding of British social history.

The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. It is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades.

Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline.

In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they -- and Grace -- know the truth.

In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever.

The novel is full of secrets -- some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history.

TC Tidbit: The 25 Greatest Epigraphs in Literature

2012-01-18T04:00:00.002-07:00


Epigraph from Whom The Bell Tolls

according to flavorwire.com

Heather Shares Some Of Her 2011 Favorites

2012-01-17T06:00:00.002-07:00

I read more books in 2011 than I've read in any year since college (I keep a reading journal, so I know!). I can't imagine that I actually had more time to read, but there were so many books coming across my desk that I couldn't resist -- so I made more time! Here are just a few of the books that kept me entranced in 2011:
(Click on the covers to learn more about the books.)

Have You Met Raylan?

2012-01-17T05:00:00.012-07:00

With the closing of the Harlan County, Kentucky, coal mines, marijuana has become the biggest cash crop in the state. A hundred pounds of it can gross $300,000, but that’s chump change compared to the quarter million a human body can get you—especially when it’s sold off piece by piece.

So when Dickie and Coover Crowe, dope-dealing brothers known for sampling their own supply, decide to branch out into the body business, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens to stop them. But Raylan isn’t your average marshal; he’s the laconic, Stetson-wearing, fast-drawing lawman who juggles dozens of cases at a time and always shoots to kill. But by the time Raylan finds out who’s making the cuts, he’s lying naked in a bathtub, with Layla, the cool transplant nurse, about to go for his kidneys.

The bad guys are mostly gals this time around: Layla, the nurse who collects kidneys and sells them for ten grand a piece; Carol Conlan, a hard-charging coal-mine executive not above ordering a cohort to shoot point-blank a man who’s standing in her way; and Jackie Nevada, a beautiful sometime college student who can outplay anyone at the poker table and who suddenly finds herself being tracked by a handsome U.S. marshal.

Dark and droll, Raylan is pure Elmore Leonard—a page-turner filled with the sparkling dialogue and sly suspense that are the hallmarks of this modern master.

Raylan's Beginnings:

Fans of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified are in for a major treat. The unstoppable manhunter with the very itchy trigger finger stars in Pronto, a crime fiction gem from the one and only Elmore Leonard, “the greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever” (New York Times Book Review). The Grand Master justifies the overwhelming acclaim he has received over the course of his remarkable career with an electrifying thriller that sends the indomitable Raylan racing to Italy on the trail of a fugitive bookie who’s hiding from the vengeful Miami mob. The legendary Leonard, whom the Seattle Times lauds as the “King Daddy of crime writers,” proves that all comparisons to American noir icons John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain are well deserved with this tale of very dirty doings and extremely dangerous men coming together in the birthplace of Puccini, Garibaldi, and La Cosa Nostra.

Before U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens began electrifying TV viewers across America (in the hit series Justified), he “starred” in Elmore Leonard’s Riding the Rap—an explosive, twisty tale of a brazen Florida kidnap caper gone outrageously wrong. Chock full of wildly eccentric and deliciously criminal characters—including a psycho enforcer with a green thumb, a Bahamian bad man, and the beautiful, unabashedly greedy psychic Reverend Dawn—Riding the Rap dazzles with Leonard’s trademark ingenious plot turns and razor-keen dialogue. Gripping, surprising, and unforgettable, it is a crime fiction gem that any thriller writer—from past masters John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain to the bestselling mystery auteurs of today—would be thrilled to call his own.

Elmore Leonard’s extraordinary story collection, Fire in the Hole reconfirms his standing as the “King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times)—a true Grand Master in the legendary company of John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain. These nine riveting tales of crime and (sometimes) punishment—including the title story starring U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, which was the basis for the smash hit TV series Justified—feature all the elements that have made the great Elmore Leonard great: superb writing, unforgettable characters, breathtaking twists, and the sharpest, coolest dialogue in the mystery-thriller genre.

TC Tidbit: A Special Kind of Bookstore

2012-01-17T04:00:00.002-07:00

Read about it HERE.

Judy B.'s Best of 2011 List: Middle Grades Edition

2012-01-16T06:00:00.003-07:00

Click on the covers to learn more about the books.

(Okay, this book actually came out in 2007, but this edition came out in 2011 as a movie tie-in, so...)

Come Read and Romp With Us and Help Out Reach Out and Read Colorado

2012-01-16T05:00:00.002-07:00

Tattered Cover will be there with a very special "bookshop". Come play with us!!!

You are invited to

Read and Romp Denver!

A benefit event for

Date: Saturday, February 11, 2012

Time: 10 AM- 2 PM

Location: PPA Event Center

2105 Decatur Street (next to Sports Authority Field at Mile High)

Cost: $10 per person age 2 and up

Family-friendly lunch included.

Activities best suited for children ages 2-8.

Buy tickets Here or at www.reachoutandreadco.org!

Tickets will also be available at the door.

Grab a passport and travel through the pages of storybook favorites like Fancy Nancy, Frog and Toad and Library Lion!

Read and Romp Features:

Magic show sure to awe children of all ages
10 storybook themed stations with fun children's activities
Each child receives a gift bag with fun goodies
An experience you won't find anywhere else!

Interested in becoming an event sponsor? Questions? Email megan@reachoutandreadco.org or call (303) 623-3800.

Event Sponsors:

All proceeds will purchase new books for low-income children in the Reach Out and Read program. Reach Out and Read prepares America's youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together. Doctors, nurse practitioners, and other medical professionals incorporate Reach Out and Read's evidence-based model into regular pediatric checkups, by advising parents about the importance of reading aloud and giving developmentally-appropriate books to children. The program begins at the 6-month checkup and continues through age 5, with a special emphasis on children growing up in low-income communities. Families served by Reach Out and Read read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten with larger vocabularies and stronger language skills, better prepared to achieve their potential.

Reach Out and Read Colorado

4380 S. Syracuse St. #520

Denver, CO 80237

303-623-3800

TC Tidbit: Can "Grapes of Wrath" Be A Tool To Understanding Microeconomics?

2012-01-16T04:00:00.002-07:00

Robin Bates, an English professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland thinks so. Click here to read his reasoning.

Jackie's Giving This New Series A Big Thumbs Up!

2012-01-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

A hilarious new series from Henry Winkler & Lin Oliver, authors of the bestselling Hank Zipzer books!
Billy Broccoli is new to the neighborhood, and wants cool friends and a spot on the baseball team more than anything. But the one thing he never wanted is his own personal ghost. So imagine his surprise when he ends up sharing a room with Hoover Porterhouse, a funny ghost with a whole lot of attitude.

When an obnoxious school bully sets out to demolish Billy, the Hoove comes up with a plan for revenge. It’s all in the Hoove’s Rule Number Forty-Two: Stay cool. And like it or not, Billy and the Hoove have to stick together if Billy ever wants to get in style, get even, and conquer the school.

Jackie says:
"Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver have had a smashing success with their Hank Zipper series (17 books!), but now they are trying out a new series called Ghost Buddy. It stars Billy Broccoli, eleven gong on twelve, about to start junior high, and moving into a big new house with his mother and his new step-dad and step-sister who is a year older than him. And to top it all off, his new bedroom is haunted! By the 14 year old spirit of Hoover Porterhouse, a student ghost who has failed to "move up" because he hasn't been very good at helping people (a MUST for moving up). At first it seems like a terrible thing to be roomies with a ghost, but it does seem that 'The Hoove' could help him gain some confidence (including some 'Fonzieish' type social coaching), and maybe get even with the next door bully who has made his life miserable since his toe first hit the ground at the new house. This story moves along nicely, has plenty of humor and even a good lesson or two thrown in. I don't see any reason why this series won't be just as successful as their first."

These Graphic Novels Tackle Some Tough Subjects

2012-01-15T05:00:00.004-07:00

Translated from the Japanese bestseller, this story centers on Oto-san, a man who finds himself abandoned by his family and friends with nothing in his life happening the way he had planned. He embarks on a road trip to escape it all, and he soon discovers the only one he can count on completely is his faithful, recently adopted dog, who helps him see the light at the end of the tunnel. Illustrating the valuable lessons of friendship and loyalty, this is a heartwarming tale of two endearing characters and their shared adventure into the unknown.

Neal Barton just wants to read in peace. Unluckily for him, some local Christian activists are trying to get his favorite fantasy series banned from the Americus public library on grounds of immoral content and heresy. Something has to be done, and it looks like quiet, shy Neal is going to have to do it. With youth services librarian Charlotte Murphy at his back, Neal finds himself leading the charge to defend the mega-bestselling fantasy series that makes his life worth living.

This funny, gripping, and relatable tale of life and local politics in middle America is currently being serialized online at saveapathea.com.

TC Tidbit: Carved Book Landscapes by Guy Laramee

2012-01-15T04:00:00.002-07:00

See more HERE.

"Engaging and accessible, thoughtful without being daunting: This may be the novel that brings Muslim-American fiction into the commercial mainstream.: --Kirkus Reviews

2012-01-14T06:00:00.002-07:00

Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes.

Mina is Hayat's mother's oldest friend from Pakistan. She is independent, beautiful and intelligent, and arrives on the Shah's doorstep when her disastrous marriage in Pakistan disintegrates. Even Hayat's skeptical father can't deny the liveliness and happiness that accompanies Mina into their home. Her deep spirituality brings the family's Muslim faith to life in a way that resonates with Hayat as nothing has before. Studying the Quran by Mina's side and basking in the glow of her attention, he feels an entirely new purpose mingled with a growing infatuation for his teacher.

When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by his feelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual and romantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe is true. Just as Mina finds happiness, Hayat is compelled to act -- with devastating consequences for all those he loves most.

American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.

"Penney wraps a riddle in a mystery inside an enigma that intrigues from the very first page. " --Publisher's Weekly

2012-01-14T05:00:00.004-07:00

Small-time private investigator Ray Lovell veers between paralysis and delirium in a hospital bed. But before the accident that landed him there, he'd been hired to find Rose Janko, the wife of a charismatic son of a traveling Gypsy family, who went missing seven years earlier. Half Romany himself, Ray is well aware that he's been chosen more for his blood than his investigative skills. Still, he's surprised by the intense hostility he encounters from the Jankos, who haven't had an easy past. Touched by tragedy, they're either cursed or hiding a terrible secret-whose discovery Ray can't help suspecting is connected to Rose's disappearance. . . .

TC Tidbit: A Few Interesting Ideas From bookshelfporn.com

2012-01-14T04:00:00.002-07:00

via bookshelfporn.com

Sarah H.'s Top Ten of 2011

2012-01-13T06:00:00.002-07:00

Click on the covers to learn more about the books.

A View of North Korea Rarely Seen

2012-01-13T05:00:00.002-07:00

An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master’s Son follows a young man’s journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world’s most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.

Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.

Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress “so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.”

Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master’s Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love.

Read an interview with the author HERE.

TC Tidbit: Leonardo DiCaprio to Produce "Beat The Reaper" for HBO

2012-01-13T04:00:00.002-07:00

Read more about it on deadline.com

About the book the series will be created from:

Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan's worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he'd prefer to keep hidden. Whether it's a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he's the last person you want to see in your hospital room.

Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown's new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might-just might-be the same person ...
Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours-and somehow beat the reaper.

Spattered in adrenaline-fueled action and bone-saw-sharp dialogue, Beat the Reaper is a debut thriller so utterly original you won't be able to guess what happens next, and so shockingly entertaining you won't be able to put it down.

April's 2011 Favorites

2012-01-12T06:00:00.006-07:00

Just click the covers to learn more about the books.

His 14 Year Old Son Inspired This Rapper To Write

2012-01-12T05:00:00.002-07:00

Thirteen-year-old Butterball doesn't have much going for him. He's teased mercilessly about his weight. He hates the Long Island suburb his mom moved them to and wishes he still lived with his dad in the city. And now he's stuck talking to a totally out-of-touch therapist named Liz.

Liz tries to uncover what happened that day on the playground - a day that landed one kid in the hospital and Butterball in detention. Butterball refuses to let her in on the truth, and while he evades her questions, he takes readers on a journey through the moments that made him into the playground bully he is today.

This devastating yet ultimately redemptive story is told in voice-driven prose and accented with drawings and photographs, making it a natural successor to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Loosely inspired by 50 Cent's own adolescence, and written with his fourteen-year-old son in mind, Playground is sure to captivate wide attention - and spark intense discussion.

Read and watch a MTV interview with 50 Cent about this book.

TC Tidbit: Dave Eggers Latest--A Shower Curtain

2012-01-12T04:00:00.002-07:00

Yes, we said shower curtain. Read more about it HERE.

Judy B.'s Favorite Picture Books of 2011, Part Three

2012-01-11T06:00:00.012-07:00

Over the snow, the world is hushed and white. But under the snow exists a secret kingdom of squirrels and snow hares, bears and bullfrogs, and many other animals that live through the winter safe and warm, awake and busy, under the snow. Discover the wonder and activity that lies beneath winter s snowy landscape in this magical book.

Otis and all his farm friends are enjoying a summer's day, but the bull has no interest in playing and stays in his pen. Suddenly the day turns frightening and stormy: it's a tornado! Otis takes all of the animals to safety, but the bull is still locked in his pen! Quick as his tires will take him, Otis putt puff puttedy chuffs back to the farm to save the day.

The story of America and African Americans is a story of hope and inspiration and unwavering courage. But it is also the story of injustice; of a country divided by law, education, and wealth; of a people whose struggles and achievements helped define their country. This is the story of the men, women, and children who toiled in the hot sun picking cotton for their masters; it’s about the America ripped in two by Jim Crow laws; it’s about the brothers and sisters of all colors who rallied against those who would dare bar a child from an education. It’s a story of discrimination and broken promises, determination and triumphs.

Kadir Nelson, one of this generation’s most accomplished, award-winning artists, has created an epic yet intimate introduction to the history of America and African Americans, from colonial days through the civil rights movement. Written in the voice of an “Everywoman,” an unnamed narrator whose forebears came to this country on slave ships and who lived to cast her vote for the first African American president, heart and soul touches on some of the great transformative events and small victories of that history. This inspiring book demonstrates that in gaining their freedom and equal rights, African Americans helped our country achieve its promise of liberty and justice—the true heart and soul of our nation.

When a farm girl starts cooking, all the animals want to help. The cow contributes milk, the hen offers eggs, and even the duck makes a special trip to the market. Key English words change to Spanish as the story builds to a delicious ending.

A star is how you know it’s almost night.
As soon as you see one, there’s another, and another.
And the dark that comes doesn’t feel so dark.
What if you could have a star?

From acclaimed author Mary Lyn Ray and two-time Caldecott Honor winner Marla Frazee comes this tender, evocative—and profound—exploration of stars both near and far.

Move Over Steig

2012-01-11T05:00:00.002-07:00

A gripping literary thriller and smash bestseller that has taken Italy, France, Germany and the UK by storm.

Six severed arms are discovered, arranged in a mysterious circle and buried in a clearing in the woods. Five of them appear to belong to missing girls between the ages of eight and eighteen. The sixth is yet to be identified. Worse still, the girls' bodies, alive or dead, are nowhere to be found.

Lead investigators Mila Vasquez, a celebrated profiler, and Goran Gavila, an eerily prescient criminologist, dive into the case. They're confident they've got the right suspect in their sights until they discover no link between him and any of the kidnappings except the first. The evidence in the case of the second missing child points in a vastly different direction, creating more questions than it answers.

Vasquez and Gavila begin to wonder if they've been brought in to take the fall in a near-hopeless case. Is it all coincidence? Or is a copycat criminal at work? Obsessed with a case that becomes more tangled and intense as they unravel the layers of evil, Gavila and Vasquez find that their lives are increasingly in each other's hands.
The Whisperer, as sensational a bestseller in Europe as the Stieg Larsson novels, is that rare creation: a thought-provoking, intelligent thriller that is also utterly unputdownable.

Read an excerpt HERE.

TC Tidbit: The 2012 List of Banished Words

2012-01-11T04:00:00.002-07:00

The activist grammarians at Lake Superior State University have released their 2012 List of Banished Words, a collection of overused, abused and fake words that infected our language this year.

(Thanks to our friends at galleycat.com for telling us about this!)

Judy B.'s Favorite Picture Books of 2011, Part Two

2012-01-10T06:00:00.013-07:00

A happy-go-lucky Walrus escapes the zoo in search of adventure in this wordless instant classic.

Bored with life at the zoo, an adventurous walrus escapes to the outside world. With the zookeeper in hot pursuit, Walrus cleverly tries on all sorts of hats to disguise himself. Will a yellow hardhat point to a new life as a construction worker? Or will a red swimming cap reveal his true talents? Follow the happy-go-lucky runaway as he hides amongst firefighters, businessmen, and even high-stepping dancers in this delightful wordless picture book.

A New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2011!

A picture-book delight by a rising talent tells a cumulative tale with a mischievous twist.

The bear's hat is gone, and he wants it back. Patiently and politely, he asks the animals he comes across, one by one, whether they have seen it. Each animal says no, some more elaborately than others. But just as the bear begins to despond, a deer comes by and asks a simple question that sparks the bear's memory and renews his search with a vengeance. Told completely in dialogue, this delicious take on the classic repetitive tale plays out in sly illustrations laced with visual humor-- and winks at the reader with a wry irreverence that will have kids of all ages thrilled to be in on the joke.

On a ridge above the Kalihari,
Lion naps, until Mouse bumbles into him,
willy-nilly, startling him awake.
After a show of teeth, Lion is softened
by Mouse's pledge of loyalty
and sets him free.
When a cold moon brings a humbling lesson,
Lion comes to recognize
Mouse's keen skill, and deeper kindness.
Mouse and Lion, Aesop's fabled duo,
renew their ancient bond
in this warm retelling by Rand Burkert,
illuminated by the authentic natural detail
of Nancy Ekholm Burkert's art.

It's nice to have your friends move in, but. . . . A sweet, wry tale of cooperation and camaraderie, told with pastoral artwork by Inga Moore.

One little pig has made a little den for herself in the woods, and another little pig has a small hut next door. One morning they return from a walk to find that their big friend Bear has moved into the den and an even larger Moose into the hut. CRASH! With both homes collapsed, they're all in a pickle--but what if they find a way to build a house in the woods that all four of them can share? With lush, whimsically detailed illustrations and a cast of endearing, industrious (and most accommodating!) characters, Inga Moore constructs an inviting story of friendship that kids will be happy to visit awhile.

In his characteristic heartwarming style, Patrick McDonnell tells the story of the young Jane Goodall and her special childhood toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. As the young Jane observes the natural world around her with wonder, she dreams of "a life living with and helping all animals," until one day she finds that her dream has come true.

One of the world's most inspiring women, Dr. Jane Goodall is a renowned humanitarian, conservationist, animal activist, environmentalist, and United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 1977 she founded the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), a global nonprofit organization that empowers people to make a difference for all living things.

With anecdotes taken directly from Jane Goodall's autobiography, McDonnell makes this very true story accessible for the very young--and young at heart.

A Million Reasons To Read A Book

2012-01-10T05:00:00.005-07:00

World Book Night is an annual celebration designed to spread a love of reading and books. To be held in the U.S. as well as the U.K. and Ireland on April 23, 2012. It will see tens of thousands of people go out into their communities to spread the joy and love of reading by giving out free World Book Night paperbacks.

World Book Night, through social media and traditional publicity, will also promote the value of reading, of printed books, and of bookstores and libraries to everyone year-round.

Successfully launched in the U.K. in 2011, World Book Night will also be celebrated in the U.S. in 2012, with news of more countries to come in future years. Please join our mailing list for regular World Book Night U.S. news. And thank you to our U.K. friends for such a wonderful idea!

Additionally, April 23 is UNESCO’s World Book Day, chosen due to the anniversary of Cervantes’ death, as well as Shakespeare’s birth and death.

Click on any of the links in bold type above to learn more about the program and about how to become a volunteer book giver.

TC Tidbit: Walter Dean Myers Named National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

2012-01-10T04:00:00.002-07:00

Read more about it here.

Judy B.'s Favorite Picture Books of 2011, Part One

2012-01-09T06:00:00.005-07:00

Susan Marie Swanson’s elegant prose and Beth Krommes’s spectacular illustrations open up a nighttime world where ordinary objects become beautifully illuminated. Images of a key, a toy, a bear, and a book leap from the pages as we’re reminded that even when night arrives, the sun’s warm light never truly leaves us. A spare, patterned text and glowing pictures explore the origins of light that make a house a home in this bedtime book for young children. Naming nighttime things that are both comforting and intriguing to preschoolers—a key, a bed, the moon—this timeless book illuminates a reassuring order to the universe.

On a beautiful sunlit beach, a girl builds a magnificent sandcastle. As night falls the girl heads for home. Waves move ever closer to the castle, threatening its survival. Suddenly, in one of its windows, a light comes on . . . Sea of Dreams is a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Picture Books title for 2011.

Every child has an artist inside them, and this vibrant new picture book from Eric Carle will help let it out. The artist in this book paints the world as he sees it, just like a child. There's a red crocodile, an orange elephant, a purple fox and a polka-dotted donkey. More than anything, there's imagination. Filled with some of the most magnificently colorful animals of Eric Carle's career, this tribute to the creative life celebrates the power of art.

Press the yellow dot on the cover of this book, follow the instructions within, and embark upon a magical journey! Each page of this surprising book instructs the reader to press the dots, shake the pages, tilt the book, and who knows what will happen next! Children and adults alike will giggle with delight as the dots multiply, change direction, and grow in size! Especially remarkable because the adventure occurs on the flat surface of the simple, printed page, this unique picture book about the power of imagination and interactivity will provide read-aloud fun for all ages!

First Second is very proud to present Nursery Rhyme Comics. Featuring fifty classic nursery rhymes illustrated and interpreted in comics form by fifty of today’s preeminent cartoonists and illustrators, this is a groundbreaking new entry in the canon of nursery rhymes treasuries.

From New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast’s “There Was a Crooked Man” to Bad Kitty author Nick Bruel’s “Three Little Kittens” to First Second’s own Gene Yang’s “Pat-a-Cake,” this is a collection that will put a grin on your face from page one and keep it there.

Each rhyme is one to three pages long, and simply paneled and lettered to ensure that the experience is completely accessible for the youngest of readers. Chock full of engaging full-color artwork and favorite characters (Jack and Jill! Old Mother Hubbard! The Owl and the Pussycat!), this collection will be treasured by children for years to come.

Great Prices on E-Reads From Harper

2012-01-09T05:00:00.004-07:00

HarperTeen is offering these prices through January 30, 2012. Click on the covers to learn more about the books and to order them through our website.

TC Tidbit: Christopher Hitchens Last Vanity Fair Essay, "Charles Dickens’s Inner Child"

2012-01-09T04:00:00.002-07:00

Read it HERE.

Tickets Are Available Beginning 9:00 am Tomorrow (1/9/11) and They Go FAST!!!!

2012-01-08T06:30:00.002-07:00

The Tattered Cover is delighted to welcome four esteemed authors for our annual Writers Respond to Readers event. This full day event brings writers and readers, and book club members, together in an intimate setting to talk about books and writing.

Karen Essex is an award-winning journalist and the author of five novels, including the international bestseller Dracula in Love.

Journalist and writer Eowyn Ivey is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel The Snow Child, coming in January 2012.

J. Courtney Sullivan is the author of the New York Times best-selling novel Commencement and her well-received new novel Maine.

Thrity Umrigar is the acclaimed author whose works include The Space Between Us, The Weight of Heaven, and her eagerly anticipated new novel The World We Found.

This event includes morning refreshments to begin the day and a wine and cheese reception to round off the afternoon. Tickets are $50.00 per person and will go on sale Monday, January 9, beginning at 9:00 am. Tickets can only be purchased by calling 303-322-1965 ext.2739 with a credit card.

From Eloise to Nina

2012-01-08T06:00:00.002-07:00

Nina has had enough!

What makes Nina mad? Lots of things--lots of little, everyday things, frustrations that all children will recognize. But Nina knows how to speak her mind and that makes her feel much better. In a series of humorous vignettes, Hilary Knight, the artist who brought the enormously successful Eloise to life, applies his magic to a text by veteran children's book writer Steven Kroll, and brings to life a spunky character who will show young readers how to articulate their feelings.

Read the graphicnovelreporter.com interview with Hilary Knight

Now Out In Paperback

2012-01-08T05:00:00.002-07:00

When a bird flies into a window in Spring Green, Wisconsin, sisters Milly and Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds' heartbeats, assessing what she can fix and what she can't, while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who've brought them. These spinster sisters have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health.

But back in the summer of 1947, Milly and Twiss knew nothing about trying to mend what had been accidentally broken. Milly was known as a great beauty with emerald eyes and Twiss was a brazen wild child who never wore a dress or did what she was told. That was the summer their golf pro father got into an accident that cost him both his swing and his charm, and their mother, the daughter of a wealthy jeweler, finally admitted their hardscrabble lives wouldn't change. It was the summer their priest, Father Rice, announced that God didn't exist and ran off to Mexico, and a boy named Asa finally caught Milly's eye. And, most unforgettably, it was the summer their cousin Bett came down from a town called Deadwater and changed the course of their lives forever.

Rebecca Rasmussen's masterfully written debut novel is full of hope and beauty, heartbreak and sacrifice, love and the power of sisterhood, and offers wonderful surprises at every turn.

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos.

Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon -- from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.
Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

(Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

How saying thank you changed one man's life--and can transform yours, too.

One recent December, John Kralik found his life at a frightening low: his small law firm was failing; he was struggling through a painful divorce; he had grown distant from his children; and overall, his life dreams seemed to have slipped beyond reach.

Inspired by a note his ex-girlfriend had sent to thank him for a gift, John imagined that he might find a way to feel grateful for what he had by writing thank-you notes. To keep himself going, he set a goal of writing 365 notes in the coming year.

TC Tidbit: How One "Little" Book Saved A Life

2012-01-08T04:00:00.003-07:00

read about it at huffingtonpost.com

More about the book involved:

With its uplifting and heartwarming story, Cassandra's Angel brings an inspiring message of self-empowerment to children of all ages.

It seems like everyone--her mother, her teacher, even other girls and boys--is telling Cassandra that she just can't do anything right, whether it's tidying her room or painting a picture. No wonder she feels misunderstood and alone! But then she meets a very special angel who shares a secret that will help Cassandra shine brightly--and light up the world.

This book is "absorbing and resonant, a backward-looking coming-of-age tale."--The Plain Dealer

2012-01-07T06:00:00.003-07:00

The acclaimed author of The Space Between Us and The Weight of Heaven returns with a breathtaking, skillfully wrought story of four women and the unbreakable ties they share.

As university students in late 1970s Bombay,Armaiti, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta were inseparable. Spirited and unconventional, they challenged authority and fought for a better world. But much has changed over the past thirty years. Following different paths, the quartet drifted apart, the day-to-day demands of work and family tempering the revolutionary fervor they once shared.

Then comes devastating news: Armaiti, who moved to America, is gravely ill and wants to see the old friends she left behind.

For Laleh, reunion is a bittersweet reminder of unfulfilled dreams and unspoken guilt. For Kavita, it is an admission of forbidden passion. For Nishta, it is the promise of freedom from a bitter fundamentalist husband. And for Armaiti, it is an act of acceptance, of letting go on her own terms even if her ex-husband and daughter do not understand her choices.

In the course of their journey to reconnect, Armaiti, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta must confront the truths of their lives—acknowledge long-held regrets, face painful secrets and hidden desires, and reconcile their idealistic past and their compromised present. And they will have to decide what matters most, a choice that may just help them reclaim the extraordinary world they once found.

Exploring the enduring bonds of friendship and the power of love to change lives, and offering an unforgettable portrait of modern India—a nation struggling to bridge economic, religious, gender, and generational divides—The World We Found is a dazzling masterwork from the remarkable Thrity Umrigar.

Grippando Starts A New Year With A New Stand-Alone Title

2012-01-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Abe Cushman, the evil genius behind a sixty-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, has killed himself and taken his secrets to the grave. For Patrick Lloyd, a young Wall Street advisor at the world's largest Swiss bank, Cushman's fall has unexpected—and deadly—repercussions. His girlfriend, Lilly, is directly tied to billions of dollars in losses suffered by Cushman's most dangerous "victims," a group of powerful investors whose identities and dirty finances are shrouded in secrecy. What Lilly knows can get her and Patrick killed, and now the pair are in a run for their lives that leads to the heart of a secret operation.

With no place to turn and no one to trust, Patrick and Lilly must uncover the truth before they become collateral damage in a "financial war" where casualties are no longer measured in dollars and cents.

PW says:
"A Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff proportions drives this winning financial thriller from bestseller Grippando (Money to Burn). Abe Cushman, “a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock market and a force on Wall Street trading for nearly fifty years,” commits suicide just hours before he’s supposed to report to federal authorities on charges of massive securities fraud. Upwards of $60 billion has disappeared, and some very dangerous investors are extremely upset. Dragged into the hunt for the missing money is Patrick Lloyd, “the junior member on a team of high-net-worth specialists” at the Manhattan office of the International Bank of Switzerland, along with his fellow BOS employee and former girlfriend, Lilly Scanlon. Grippando slowly reveals the twists and turns of his intricate plot while fueling the proceedings with a steady supply of action. A solid ending will leave readers wondering if the author has come up with a solution to the real-life Madoff mysteries that still remain."

TC Tidbits: Writers Choose Their Favorite Book of 2011

2012-01-07T04:00:00.004-07:00

from our friends at salon.com

More TC Staff Weigh In On What Was "Best of 2011"

2012-01-06T06:00:00.003-07:00

Mike P. loved:

Katie S loved:

They BOTH Love:

Jinx loved:

"That's easy for me this year. Stephen Kings' , 11/22/63, wins, hands down. The morning after I finished it I got up early and reread the last 2 chapters, and thought, 'Yes, I'm satisfied'. I think it will be one of my all time favorites."--Jinx

Eric Weiner Goes Looking For a Different Kind of Bliss In His Latest

2012-01-06T05:00:00.002-07:00

When a health scare puts him in the hospital, Eric Weiner-an agnostic by default-finds himself tangling with an unexpected question, posed to him by a well-meaning nurse. "Have you found your God yet?" The thought of it nags him, and prods him-and ultimately launches him on a far-flung journey to do just that.

Weiner, a longtime "spiritual voyeur" and inveterate traveler, realizes that while he has been privy to a wide range of religious practices, he's never seriously considered these concepts in his own life. Face to face with his own mortality, and spurred on by the question of what spiritual principles to impart to his young daughter, he decides to correct this omission, undertaking a worldwide exploration of religions and hoping to come, if he can, to a personal understanding of the divine.

The journey that results is rich in insight, humor, and heart. Willing to do anything to better understand faith, and to find the god or gods that speak to him, he travels to Nepal, where he meditates with Tibetan lamas and a guy named Wayne. He sojourns to Turkey, where he whirls (not so well, as it turns out) with Sufi dervishes. He heads to China, where he attempts to unblock his chi; to Israel, where he studies Kabbalah, sans Madonna; and to Las Vegas, where he has a close encounter with Raelians (followers of the world's largest UFO-based religion).

At each stop along the way, Weiner tackles our most pressing spiritual questions: Where do we come from? What happens when we die? How should we live our lives? Where do all the missing socks go? With his trademark wit and warmth, he leaves no stone unturned. At a time when more Americans than ever are choosing a new faith, and when spiritual questions loom large in the modern age, Man Seeks God presents a perspective on religion that is sure to delight, inspire, and entertain.

TC Tidbit: Flavorwire.com's List of Best Debut Novels of 2011

2012-01-06T04:00:00.002-07:00

Check out the slide show HERE.

Joel says, "This might be the best book I've read in my life."

2012-01-05T06:00:00.008-07:00

Running the Rift follows Jean Patrick Nkuba, a gifted Rwandan boy, from the day he knows that running will be his life to the moment he must run to save his life, a ten-year span in which his country is undone by the Hutu-Tutsi tensions. Born a Tutsi, he is thrust into a world where it’s impossible to stay apolitical—where the man who used to sell you gifts for your family now spews hatred, where the girl who flirted with you in the lunchroom refuses to look at you, where your Hutu coach is secretly training the very soldiers who will hunt down your family. Yet in an environment increasingly restrictive for the Tutsi, he holds fast to his dream of becoming Rwanda’s first Olympic medal contender in track, a feat he believes might deliver him and his people from this violence. When the killing begins, Jean Patrick is forced to flee, leaving behind the woman, the family, and the country he loves. Finding them again is the race of his life.

Running the Rift won the 2010 Bellwether Prize, created with the mission of advocating serious literary fiction that addresses issues of social justice. Barbara Kingsolver, the founder of the Bellwether Prize, called this book "culturally rich and completely engrossing. It engages the reader with complex political questions about ethnic animosity in Rwanda and so many other issues relevant to North American readers," For one, it conveys the impossibility of remaining neutral within a climate of broad moral compromise—even for purportedly apolitical institutions like the Olympics.”

Joel says:

'To put it simply, Running the Rift is one of the most riveting, unforgettable books that I have ever read. While the plot develops slowly, it progresses to an immensely captivating, shocking, and awe-inspiring apex as it nears its end, full of love, horror, hope, and sadness—in a word: bittersweet. It is centered on the fictional life of Jean Patrick, a gifted runner full of bounding enthusiasm, extraordinary intelligence and naïve innocence. Jean Patrick lives in a Rwanda on the verge of civil war, rife with racial tension between the country’s two main ethnic groups, Hutus and Tutsis. Born a Tutsi under Hutu rule, Jean Patrick’s only chance for social and economic mobility is to perform at the very top of his class and receive extraordinary marks on standardized tests—which he does. But when Hutu-Tutsi tensions escalate throughout the novel, his extraordinary intelligence and athleticism may no longer be adequate to redeem him in the eyes of Rwandan authorities.

In Running the Rift, Jean Patrick attends a school in Burundi as he trains for the Olympics as a track runner. As Rwandan politicians turn Jean Patrick into a poster child of Tutsi success as a façade to placate the human rights demands of Western nations that provide humanitarian aid for Rwanda, Jean Patrick strives to ignore the politics and simply focus on running. He soon learns, however, that it is impossible to remain apolitical when he is running as an Olympian for his country. When Hutu President Habyarimana is assassinated and Hutus respond with a much-anticipated Tutsi genocide, Jean Patrick is forced to run for his life as he flees his homeland, with hope as his only sustenance for both his own life and the lives of those whom he loves.

Naomi Benaron has crafted a beautiful, riveting work of historical fiction that simultaneously warns us of the dangers of passively allowing societal discontent to fester and reminds us not to take for granted our most prized passions and human bonds. This captivating novel also raises difficult and compelling questions for the privileged Western reader, particularly with respect to the rightful place of humanitarian aid in foreign policy. Benaron’s writing—full of meticulous care, childlike innocence, and an enrapturing buildup to the novel’s end—powerfully paints the passion and naiveté of Jean Patrick’s lovable, noble character on every single page of this amazing book."

An Unforgettable Adventure Beginning Where Shakespeare's Othello Leaves Off

2012-01-05T05:00:00.004-07:00

Wounded in love, tormented by his past, Shakespeare's most complex villain is brought magnificently to life in this tale of two adversaries—one an accused killer; the other, one of the most powerful men in Venice. Having escaped from Cyprus, accused of the murders of the governor, known as the Moor, and his lovely young wife, Iago is now locked in battle with Annibale Malipiero, known as Il Terribile, the chief inquisitor of Italy's greatest city.

Malipiero is repelled by the more brutal tasks of the interrogante. His obsession is with the very nature of evil. What makes a man into a murderer, he longs to know? Is Iago a lone psychopath, or does he lie at the heart of a more widespread Ottoman conspiracy? Malipiero knows that torture will not provide him with the answers he seeks. But there is, perhaps, a more audacious and unusual route to the truth . . .

Exuberantly inventive, thrillingly complex, and richly entertaining, Iago will captivate fans already familiar with Shakespeare and appeal to anyone who loves a rich historical novel. Iago marks the emergence of a remarkable new literary voice.

Listen to Snodin talking about writing Iago HERE.

TC Tidbit: GalleyCat Has Created Directory of the Best Indie Bookstores on Twitter

2012-01-05T04:00:00.003-07:00

Take a look HERE and follow away!

Dispatch From The Field: Joe's "Top of 2011" List, Part Two

2012-01-04T06:00:00.001-07:00

Joe says, "Here's to another great year of books!"
Click on the covers to learn more about the books Joe is recommending.

(Okay, technically it came out in paperback at the end of 2010, but Joe really wants this on the list!)

A Privileged View Into The Mind of A Writer Whose Thinking Has Shaped Our Culture for Over 30 Years

2012-01-04T05:00:00.003-07:00

William Gibson is known primarily as a novelist, with his work ranging from his groundbreaking first novel, Neuromancer, to his more recent contemporary bestsellers Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. During those nearly thirty years, though, Gibson has been sought out by widely varying publications for his insights into contemporary culture. Wired magazine sent him to Singapore to report on one of the world's most buttoned-up states. The New York Times Magazine asked him to describe what was wrong with the Internet. Rolling Stone published his essay on the ways our lives are all "soundtracked" by the music and the culture around us. And in a speech at the 2010 Book Expo, he memorably described the interactive relationship between writer and reader.

These essays and articles have never been collected-until now. Some have never appeared in print at all. In addition, Distrust That Particular Flavor includes journalism from small publishers, online sources, and magazines no longer in existence. This volume will be essential reading for any lover of William Gibson's novels. Distrust That Particular Flavor offers readers a privileged view into the mind of a writer whose thinking has shaped not only a generation of writers but our entire culture.

TC Tidbit: A Sneaky Clue Left By Lev Grossman

2012-01-04T04:00:00.002-07:00

Read about it HERE.

Dispatches From The Field: Joe's "Top of 2011" List, Part One

2012-01-03T06:00:00.004-07:00

"I know that this is quite a big list... but I thought 2011 was a very strong year for books."
Just click the covers to learn more about each book.

Joe notes that "these above two have become go-to staples in my kitchen!"

Stay tuned until tomorrow for the rest of Joe's list!

Getting Smarter About Money

2012-01-03T05:00:00.002-07:00

"It's not that we're dumb. We're wired to avoid pain and pursue pleasure and security. It feels right to sell when everyone around us is scared and buy when everyone feels great. It may feel right-but it's not rational."
-From The Behavior Gap

Why do we lose money? It's easy to blame the economy or the financial markets-but the real trouble lies in the decisions we make.

As a financial planner, Carl Richards grew frustrated watching people he cared about make the same mistakes over and over. They were letting emotion get in the way of smart financial decisions. He named this phenomenon-the distance between what we should do and what we actually do-"the behavior gap." Using simple drawings to explain the gap, he found that once people understood it, they started doing much better.

Richards's way with words and images has attracted a loyal following to his blog posts for The New York Times, appearances on National Public Radio, and his columns and lectures. His book will teach you how to rethink all kinds of situations where your perfectly natural instincts (for safety or success) can cost you money and peace of mind.

He'll help you to:

avoid the tendency to buy high and sell low;

avoid the pitfalls of generic financial advice;

invest all of your assets-time and energy as well as savings-more wisely;

quit spending money and time on things that don't matter;

identify your real financial goals;

start meaningful conversations about money;

simplify your financial life;

stop losing money!
It's never too late to make a fresh financial start. As Richards writes: "We've all made mistakes, but now it's time to give yourself permission to review those mistakes, identify your personal behavior gaps, and make a plan to avoid them in the future. The goal isn't to make the 'perfect' decision about money every time, but to do the best we can and move forward. Most of the time, that's enough."

TC Tidbit: Ralph Nader's Holiday Reading for the Caring, Agitated Mind

2012-01-03T04:00:00.002-07:00

from the folks at common.dreams.com.

Lynn's Favorites of 2011

2012-01-02T06:00:00.015-07:00

News for All the People is a sweeping account of the class and racial conflicts in American news media, from the first colonial newspaper to the internet age. It chronicles key government decisions that created our nation s system of news, major political battles over the role of the press, and the rise of media conglomerates and epoch-defining technologies. The book reveals how racial segregation in the media distorted the news and unearths numerous examples of how publishers and broadcasters actually fomented racial violence through their coverage. And it illuminates how Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American journalists fought to create a vibrant yet little-known alternative and democratic press and then, beginning in the 1970s, forced open the doors of the major media companies. The writing is fast-paced, story-driven and replete with portraits of individual journalists and media executives, both famous and obscure, the heroes and the villains. It weaves back and forth between the corporate battles and government policies that built our segregated media system as when Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover gave a radio license to a notorious KKK organization in the nation s capital and those who rebelled against that system, such as Pittsburgh Courier publisher Robert L. Vann, who led a national campaign to get the black-face comedy Amos n Andy y off the air. News for All the People will become the new standard history of American media.

Lynn says:

"The history of how media in this country has systematically excluded (and occasionally learned from) voices of color is nearly dizzying in its ambition, but its stories give rich context to a history long neglected in the body politic. From the earliest publications during colonial times that spawned both racist mob violence and the abolitionist movement to the current debates over net neutrality's open sourcing vs privatization of the internet, there has been a steady tug of war between the status quo's consolidation and maintenance of power and advantage via media control and the muscular insistence on being heard, not just herded, by the disenfranchised or exploited people whose narratives belie the 'manifest destiny' secured by economic and often violent force. Whether consciously on our radar screens or not, this contest between centralized news that empowers the few vs. localized news with the potential to empower the many permeates our lives as we take in or filter advertising images, group stereotypes and biases that can leave us better or worse informed/equipped to navigate the shared (or not!) realities of our lives as passive or participatory citizens. History and media buffs will appreciate the scholarship and scope of this engaging resource as well as the dedication displayed by so many who refused to be silenced when informing the public of news when it most mattered."

Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in a world (not unlike our own) fueled by fear, lust, and greed; and as they discover the extraordinary depth—and frailty—of their connection.

At once contemporary and timeless, Habibi gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.

Lynn says:

"When I try to think of the best novel of the year, it has to be this -a hauntingly rendered graphic novel by Thompson. Gorgeously, fiercely, brilliantly told through both images and words, this story of love, loss, meaning, despair, trauma and healing is one of such depth and breadth for the protagonists, and one that melds so brilliantly the timelessness of myth with the trials of contemporary life on so many levels, that I actually see it as a touchstone or talisman of near alchemical properties. Rare are the books that so distill the essence of a place in time with such heart and soul, or with such howling anguish or mysteriously soothing antidote as this one."

One of the best ways to bring meditation off the cushion and into everyday life is to practice lojong (or mind training). For centuries, Tibetans have used fifty-nine powerful mind-training slogans as a way to transform life’s ordinary situations into opportunities for awakening. In this seven-CD program, Pema Chödrön presents her definitive audio teachings on lojong. She offers an overview of the practice and goes on to provide inspiring commentary on the slogans while paying special attention to how to apply them on the spot in our daily lives. The CDs include:

   • Practical commentary to enhance our understanding of the lojong slogans
   • Seven writing and reflection exercises to help us engage deeply with the slogans
   • Meditation instructions to help us relax, let go, and uncover our uncaught-up mind
   • On-the-spot methods to deepen our bodhichitta, our compassion for all beings
   • Question-and-answer sessions that address some of the most common issues that arise in lojong practice
   • Two guided meditations on tonglen—a compassion practice based on the understanding that the very thing that triggers suffering can become the foundation of happiness

Lynn says:

"When this 7-CD audiobook first arrived I impulsively purchased it just based on positive previous exposure to Pema Chodron's books and audiobooks. I have definitely not been disappointed. Intended as a more in-depth look at how one might apply the lojong slogans to everyday life situations, Chodron's steadfast, down-to-earth interpretations of Buddhist texts and stories/observations as she delves into such aphorisms as "be grateful to everyone" are best studied through repetitive contemplation, which is why this works so well as an audiobook. Every listening can reveal or highlight a nuance or insight that has a relevance particular to the moment. Her 'same boat practice' treatment of Tibetan tonglen meditation guides the listener to cultivate a more compassionate view of one's own as well as others' daily challenges and is highly accessible, whether or not one has firmly identified oneself with a Buddhist or resonates with any other formal spiritual path. For a road trip, for an accompaniment to morning tea or for closing the day, here is one uplifting way to enliven and clarify heart and mind in these demanding times."

Discover the Magical World of the Trylle... Learn What It Means to be More Than Human.

2012-01-02T05:00:00.004-07:00

Amanda Hocking is an indie publishing sensation whose self-published novels have sold millions of copies all over the world. Switched is the book that started the phenomenon. Prepare to be enchanted….

When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right. She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit. But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening. And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

As a special gift to readers, this book contains a new, never-before-published bonus story, “The Vittra Attacks,” set in the magical world of the Trylle.

Read an excerpt HERE.

And look for more from the series:

Coming out in late February 2012
Click the cover to learn more.

Coming in late April 2012
Click the cover to learn more.

TC Tidbit: First Trailer for "Being Flynn"

2012-01-02T04:00:00.002-07:00

About the book it is based on:

"Sometimes I'd see my father, walking past my building on his way to another nowhere. I could have given him a key, offered a piece of my floor. But if I let him inside the line between us would blur, my own slow-motion car wreck would speed up."

Nick Flynn met his father for the third time when he was twenty-seven years old, working as a caseworker in a homeless shelter in Boston. As a teenager he'd received letters from this stranger, a self-proclaimed poet and con man doing time in federal prison for bank robbery. Nick, his own life precariously unsettled, was living alternately in a ramshackle boat and in a warehouse that was once a strip joint. In bold, dazzling prose, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (a phrase Flynn senior uses to describe his life on the streets) tells the story of two lives and the trajectory that led Nick and his father into that homeless shelter, onto those streets, and finally to each other.

Happy New Year From Tattered Cover and Denver, Colorado!!!

2012-01-01T05:00:00.002-07:00

Happy 2012 Everyone!!!!!

2012-01-01T00:01:00.002-07:00

More TC Staff Chime In About Their 2011 Favs

2011-12-31T06:00:00.007-07:00

Jeannie loved:

Judy B. loved:

Mariana loved:

Kathy E. loved:

Celebrate Nursery Rhymes With 50 Outstanding Cartoonists!!!

2011-12-31T05:00:00.006-07:00

Featuring fifty classic nursery rhymes illustrated and interpreted in comics form by fifty of today’s preeminent cartoonists and illustrators, this is a groundbreaking new entry in the canon of nursery rhymes treasuries.

From New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast’s “There Was a Crooked Man” to Bad Kitty author Nick Bruel’s “Three Little Kittens” to First Second’s own Gene Yang’s “Pat-a-Cake,” this is a collection that will put a grin on your face from page one and keep it there.

Each rhyme is one to three pages long, and simply paneled and lettered to ensure that the experience is completely accessible for the youngest of readers. Chock full of engaging full-color artwork and favorite characters (Jack and Jill! Old Mother Hubbard! The Owl and the Pussycat!), this collection will be treasured by children for years to come.

Take A Look Inside:

TC Tidbit: Popular Podcast "Books on the Nightstand" Comes Up With Their Own List of Overlooked Books of 2011 and More

2011-12-31T04:00:00.003-07:00

Check it out HERE.

Jackie's Top Ten Foodie Books For 2011 (With Bonus Entries)

2011-12-30T06:00:00.006-07:00

Click the book cover to learn more about it.

And I have to mention couple more, even though theycome out this year, because they are recent discoveries on mine and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them:

Happy New Year everyone!

Jackie

New Pulse Pounding Action from Taylor Stevens

2011-12-30T05:00:00.002-07:00

With The Innocent, Taylor Stevens, the bestselling author of The Informationist, returns with another blockbuster thriller featuring the fearless Vanessa Michael Munroe.

Eight years ago, a man walked five-year-old Hannah out the front doors of her school and spirited her over the Mexican border, taking her into the world of a cult known as The Chosen. For eight years, followers of The Prophet have hidden the child, moving her from country to country, shielding the man who stole her. Now, those who’ve searched the longest know where to find her. They are childhood survivors of The Chosen, thirty-somethings born and raised inside the cult who’ve managed to make lives for themselves on the outside. They understand the mindset, the culture within that world, and turn to Vanessa Michael Munroe for help, knowing that the only possibility of stealing Hannah back and getting her safely out of Argentina is to trust someone who doesn’t trust them, and get Munroe on the inside.

Tautly written, brilliantly paced, and with the same evocation of the exotic combined with chilling violence that made The Informationist such a success, The Innocent confirms Taylor Stevens’ reputation as a thriller writer of the first rank.

TC Tidbits: Huffington Post's "Most Criminally Overlooked Books of 2011"

2011-12-30T04:00:00.002-07:00

Take a look at their slideshow HERE.

Miki's Favorites of 2011

2011-12-29T06:00:00.003-07:00

Fiction:

Non-Fiction:

YA:

Cookbooks:

Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) Tries His Hand At YA

2011-12-29T05:00:00.009-07:00

I'm telling you why we broke up, Ed. I'm writing it in this letter, the whole truth of why it happened.

Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.

Click HERE for an exclusive Entertainment Weekly video trailer for the book.

Roger Sutton Interviews Daniel Handler:

Roger Sutton: We want to talk about Why We Broke Up. Why did we break up, Daniel? It's still sad.

Daniel Handler: I don't know if you and I were ever really together.

RS: Oh, that's how you see it, do you?

DH: I'm just using the same old line I always use.

RS: Looking back on your romantic history, what would you say your ratio is for dumper/dumpee?

DH: Oh, I think I was entirely dumped. A couple of times I did the passive-aggressive trick of being a sullen jerk so I would get dumped rather than having the courtesy to say "I don't want to be in this relationship any more."

RS: I'm usually the one who gets dumped, too. I only dumped somebody once.

DH: So you and I have no idea what we're talking about.

RS: Then let's talk about something we do know about… In Why We Broke Up Min is clearly the aggrieved party. But she's also the dumper.

DH: Yeah. It seems to me that oftentimes in young relationships once there's a problem of some significance then it's almost like they're both racing for the dumper buzzer. When I was writing the book, I wanted to construct a situation in which Min is the one who's heartbroken but not the one who's been dumped.

RS: I think that you did a really great job of taking what was an unlikely couple, bohemian Min and jock Ed, and making us see why they were drawn together.

DH: I'm not sure they're an unlikely couple. I mean, I think they're an unlikely couple to last, but I don't think they're necessarily an unlikely couple as far as that goes. Particularly being that one of them is quite the lady-killer.

RS: Except he's the kind of lady-killer that girls like Min are supposed to scorn.

DH: Yeah. But as a non-lady-killer, certainly in high school, I saw that that the louder a girl scorned the lady-killer, the more likely she was going to end up with him at some point.

RS: What accounts for the book's extraordinary weight? Is it the paper? Is it the binding?

DH: It's the emotional heft.

RS: Well, they do seem to go together.

DH: I think it's the paper. In order for Maira Kalman's paintings to look as splendid as they ought to, we needed to make the book on paper that was splendid, which is to say heavy.

RS: How did you and Maira work together on this?

DH: Well, we had previously collaborated on a picture book, 13 Words. We had a good time collaborating, and when we talked about doing something else, I thought it was her turn to make the first move. And she showed me all of these paiasntings of tiny ordinary objects, which was a surprise to me, because her paintings are often so fantastical.

I tried to think of what makes ordinary objects seem a bit magical, and it seemed that their having a romantic attachment to them would do it, so that an ordinary object is made wondrous by romantic memory and imagination. And then I started thinking about all the objects going in a box, and then it being dumped on someone's front porch. And, probably because I'm always the one being dumped, I pictured a girl dumping a boy.

RS: I thought you did a great job there of assuming a girl's voice. I mean, you had this whole Lemony Snicket persona, which is one thing, and now take on this very straightforwardly, unabashedly romantic, real-life, real-girl kind of voice.

DH: My first novel for adults, The Basic Eight, was from the point of view of a teenage girl, so it wasn't entirely unfamiliar territory for me. It's always difficult for me to talk about this without sounding pervy because I end up saying, "There's just something about teenage girls . . ." But I do think that, narratively, what might seem like an ordinary story happening to a grown man, for instance, becomes instantly more interesting when it's about a teenage girl.

RS: Why is that?

DH: I think young women are given colossal expectations. Simultaneously there's no room for them in society and yet they're encouraged to go everywhere. They're both overprotected and underprotected, and they're all possibility but they're also all happening right now. There are a lot of things that just seem to collide when we're talking about young women between the ages of twelve and twenty.

RS: Which is really the audience for this book.

RS: Do you know that you have a sentence in this book that's 330 words long?

DH: Is it? I don't word-count my sentences, but that doesn't surprise me.

RS: Page 257. It starts on page 257. I didn't even realize how long it was till I counted. This is a compliment--I didn't feel like I was back in high school having to read Faulkner or anything. Just this amazing tumble of words.

DH: I remember when we were working on it, it was definitely on purpose to have that sentence end with the word "forever." Three hundred and thirty. Yeah, hoping for the record but we should get that on Twitter and see if someone has found a longer one.

RS: I can do that.

DH: That's why I mentioned it.

RS: When I started the book, and Min started talking about her passion for movies, I felt so unsophisticated because I didn't know any of the films she was talking about. It was quite a while before I decided, "Wait a minute, Roger, it's not you. These movies are made up."

DH: That was a lot of fun. I like movies, but when I was younger I ran with a crowd that really liked movies, and so I remember both the joy of seeing extremely arty movies and the boredom of being in movie theaters not understanding certain kinds of things.
Before I started this book I was looking at some novels that I really liked when I was seventeen, eighteen, and to my embarrassment, the vast majority of them were sexually explicit. But in my head, that's not how they were. In my head, what I liked about The Mambo Kings Sing Songs of Love was its passion and experimental language and location in an old-fashioned world. And when I reread it I saw that it had something like seventy-five blowjobs. But I didn't remember that at all. And it was like that for a handful of books that I reread.

After that screening of Library of the Early Mind we did at ALA in New Orleans, I was talking to a couple of librarians and they asked, What kind of books do you think we can put in the hands of adolescent boys? I said that seems like a silly goal for a writer, but if I ever decided that what I wanted to do was write a book where the primary audience would be adolescent boys, it would be filthy. And then I started talking about The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. I said boys would love it. It would be a real book. They would learn things and their minds would be engaged and their hearts would be engaged but also their loins. And I think that's when they said, "I believe the reception is just about over. Nice to meet you."

RS: People do have funny expectations of authors. That you're going to do things for a particular audience. That you can help bring boys to reading. I mean, is that your job?

DH: It might be part of my job description, but I don't think it's a good thing to sit down at my desk and think about. But probably all writers feel engaged in the process of carrying literature forward in one way or another.

RS: Do you know the book This Is Not for You, by Jane Rule? I think of it because of the direct address of your book, the sort of you, you, you of Min addressing Ed. Was that hard to remember to do, or do you just fall into it?

DH: I don't think it was that hard because I really felt the angle of telling the story to somebody. I'm trying to remember when we copyedited if there were a lot of "he saids" that had to be changed to "you saids," but I don't think there were. It felt very firmly in mind, because you tell a story differently to different people, and this story is directed at Ed.

RS: Poor guy.

DH: I'm glad you feel that way. There's more and more sympathy I'm hearing for Ed, which is nice, because I had nothing but sympathy for him when I was making this book. But being that most of the first readers were women, there was tremendously little sympathy for him.

RS: Oh, no, I think he's sympathetic, and attractive, and you can see totally why she's into him, and you can see why he does what he does—I don't want to give anything away in the interview—but he doesn't understand why she thinks he's done something wrong. It really takes him a while. It's not because he's stupid, it's because he's a guy.

DH: My publisher Megan Tingley keeps quoting this line that Ed sputters during the breakup that she finds morally despicable but I find absolutely understandable. It's where he says, "She lives nearby."

RS: Right up there with "we were on a BREAK." All right, I have one last question. Do you keep any old-girlfriend memorabilia?

DH: I do.

RS: What's the most interesting thing you have that you can share with us?

DH: I mostly have notes and photographs. I have a huge number of photographs that I took with my college girlfriend, on a road trip. It must have been color film, but printed through black-and-white technology or something. They're all sepia-toned. That road trip was the beginning of the end, so even by the time the photographs were printed, they already looked elegiac. We look so young and fragile, and we thought we were very sophisticated. We thought we were going to be together forever, and even from the body language in the photographs you can tell we weren't going to make it.

RS: Why did you break up?

DH: She met a woman. Yeah. That's another novel. That's a much longer novel. That will have a longer sentence than 330 words, I'll tell you that much.

(interview courtesy of hbook.com)

TC Tidbits: The Most Overlooked Books of 2011

2011-12-29T04:00:00.002-07:00

from our friends at GalleyCat.

Jackie's Top Ten YA Titles of 2011, With A Bonus Pick

2011-12-28T06:00:00.010-07:00

Since we've already talked about these books on BTC, just consider this a reminder of their fantasticness and click on the book covers to find out more about any books that catch your eye.

Thanks,
Jackie

And this book is not kept in our Young Adult section, but it is of vital interest to teens. It's a whole movement know, with many authors, actors, politicians, sports celebrities, etc. involved. I simply cannot praise this entire thing more highly and there is no way this book can be left off a Best of 2011 list.

Miki says: "This was the most beautiful jam packed cookbook that I have sold. The chef is the James Beard winner for 2010 and the restaurant won best in America."

2011-12-28T05:00:00.002-07:00

Eleven Madison Park is one of New York City's most popular fine-dining establishments, and one of only a handful to receive four stars from the New York Times. Under the leadership of Executive Chef Daniel Humm and General Manager Will Guidara since 2006, the restaurant has soared to new heights and has become one of the premier dining destinations in the world.

Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook is a sumptuous tribute to the unforgettable experience of dining in the restaurant, where the latest culinary techniques are married with classical French cuisine. The book features more than 125 sophisticated recipes, arranged by season, adapted for the home cook, and accompanied by stunning full-color photographs by Francesco Tonelli.

TC Tidbit: Charlotte Bronte Manuscript Sets Record at Auction

2011-12-28T04:00:00.002-07:00

Read about it HERE.

Pete's Top Fiction Picks for 2011

2011-12-27T06:00:00.002-07:00

Click on the book covers to learn more about the books.

Written in 1989 But Found Only Recently, This Book Showcases The Beginning of a Great Writer

2011-12-27T05:00:00.003-07:00

On vacation with his girlfriend, Ingeborg, the German war games champion Udo Berger returns to a small town on the Costa Brava where he spent the summers of his childhood. Soon they meet another vacationing German couple, Charly and Hanna, who introduce them to a band of locals—the Wolf, the Lamb, and El Quemado—and to the darker side of life in a resort town.

Late one night, Charly disappears without a trace, and Udo’s well-ordered life is thrown into upheaval; while Ingeborg and Hanna return to their lives in Germany, he refuses to leave the hotel. Soon he and El Quemado are enmeshed in a round of Third Reich, Udo’s favorite World War II strategy game, and Udo discovers that the game’s consequences may be all too real.

Written in 1989 and found among Roberto Bolaño’s papers after his death, The Third Reich is a stunning exploration of memory and violence. Reading this quick, visceral novel, we see a world-class writer coming into his own—and exploring for the first time the themes that would define his masterpieces The Savage Detectives and 2666.

TC Tidbit: The Best Movies Made From John le Carré Books

2011-12-27T04:00:00.002-07:00

According to the Seattle Times book editor Mary Ann Gwinn. Click HERE to see what they are.

Jackie's Top Ten Fiction and Non-Fiction Titles of 2011

2011-12-26T06:00:00.004-07:00

We've talked about these books throughout the year, so I'm not going to add any extra commentary to this post--I just wanted to remind you of what I feel are some seriously outstanding books that came out this past year. Just click on the book cover to learn more about them.

Thanks,
Jackie

"Reading Agatha Christie’s autobiography is like sitting down to tea with an especially chatty, good-natured auntie; one would never suspect her of slipping arsenic in your drink. "--Catherine Hollis, BookPage

2011-12-26T05:00:00.002-07:00

In an all-new edition, an engaging and illuminating chronicle of the life of the “Queen of Mystery,” complete with a bonus CD featuring the voice of the grande dame herself

Agatha Christie was a woman of mystery, in every sense of the word. Her novels made her the world’s best-selling author, but her private life was hidden from view. For many years she dodged reporters and gave no interviews, and for a brief time she famously disappeared. She started writing her autobiography in April 1950 and finished it fifteen years later, when she was seventy-five years old and decided “it seems the right moment to stop.”

In this book, which was originally published in 1977 in the United States by Dodd, Mead & Company, Agatha Christie sheds light on her past. She tells of her childhood in Victorian England, her volunteer work during World War II, her rise to success, her working habits, the inspiration for her most famous characters—Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple—and the places and people that influenced her. After being out of print for several years, this book is being brought back in a new hardcover edition with a CD featuring excerpts dictated by Agatha Christie herself.

Want to read more Christie? Click here.

TC Tidbit: The Symbolism Survey

2011-12-26T04:00:00.002-07:00

"In 1963, a sixteen-year-old San Diego high school student named Bruce McAllister sent a four-question mimeographed survey to 150 well-known authors of literary, commercial, and science fiction. Did they consciously plant symbols in their work? he asked. Who noticed symbols appearing from their subconscious, and who saw them arrive in their text, unbidden, created in the minds of their readers? When this happened, did the authors mind?"

75 authors answered him. The Paris Review shares some of those responses here.

The Snowman (full movie)

2011-12-25T06:00:00.006-07:00