The Olive Reader

That’s Sean Wilsey, author of State by State, which I am still savoring (I’m in the M states now), handing a copy of his excellent book to Barack Obama. So let’s get this straight: our country’s new and awesome leader has a copy. Do you?

(Photo by Beatrice Moritz, found on The Elegant Variation, found by reading Largehearted Boy’s list of the 10 best literature blogs.)

I am delighted to announce that two books that Harper Perennial will publish in paperback have been shortlisted for the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award. If they win, Russell Banks (nominated for The Reserve, out in pb in February) and Paulo Coelho (nominated for Brida, also out in pb in February) will join the esteemed ranks of previous winners such as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, and Sebastian Faulks.

In all seriousness, I don’t think that Coelho’s scene, excerpted in the article linked above, is really that “unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant,”. (haven’t read Banks’ scene). Then again, I do also work on romance novels, so maybe my judgement isn’t the soundest on such a matter.

Unshelved.com, a daily comic set in a public library, recently challenged librarians, booksellers, schools, and just about anybody who owns a book cart to jazz them up in their annual Pimp My Bookcart contest. Winners over the years have created mini-Mystery Machines (a la Scooby Doo), covered wagons, robots, and, this year, a food cart in disguise, brought to you by the student employees of Columbia’s University Library. Who wants to spend the afternoon curled in a corner with a book and a stack of hot dogs? I do.

Unshelved also features the weekly Book Club strip where the librarians discuss a different book each week. The payoff is pretty big if you’ve read the books they’re talking about — particularly Christopher Moore’s The Stupidest Angel and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, which I read in heady anticipation of the new Henry Selick movie, and, despite all the pretty colors and kid-friendly looks of the trailer, is one of the most frightening books I’ve ever read.

The dapper man in that photo (which I yanked from Paul Lisicky’s blog is Mark Doty, author of Fire to Fire and winner of the 2008 National Book Award for Poetry. Check out his citation:

“Elegant, plainspoken, and unflinching, Mark Doty’s poems in Fire to Fire gently invite us to share their ferocious compassion. With their praise for their world and their fierce accusation, their defiance and applause, they combine grief and glory in a music of crazy excelsis. In this generous retrospective volume a gifted young poet has become a master.”

Congratulations Mark!

Please read this profile of our esteemed leader CK: Carrie Kania Makes Harper Perennial Clubhouse for Losers. Learn how she went from a young farmgirl pulling weeds to the head of the most awesome paperback reprint ever. See a photo of her office looking way less cozy than it normally does. And get her “indestructible” hairspray secrets.

If, like me, you’re hosting Thanksgiving this year, you’ve probably begun mapping out your menu and polishing the silverware (or in my case, having the butler do it). In his new book Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas, our esteemed, erudite, and charming author John Baxter recalls a life lived among the rarest of breeds: French women who can’t cook. When Baxter was welcomed into his wife’s Parisian family, he was also tasked with preparing the annual family Christmas dinner for 18 guests. Listen to him recount the tale of his latest culinary triumph in our latest Perennial author interview here, and if you like the sound of his voice, you can catch him on video, too.

This morning’s Shelf Awareness brings the news that Audrey and Kevin DeKam of Oregon have welcomed a new baby boy into their family: Powell Finley DeKam, named after the famed Powell’s bookstore. They’ve gotten only positive responses so far, perhaps because a) Powell’s is a beloved institution and b) Powell is an actual name. I don’t think it would work quite as well if I named my child Word or Spoonbill & Sugartown, though Jackson for McNally Jackson might work if only I didn’t already have a cat named Jack. Would this work for your favorite bookstore?

The latest newsletter from the Academy of American Poets featured a holiday gift guide with a link to lots of cool poetry-related gifts under $20 in their store. I wonder what Walt Whitman would think about being on a baby doll tee?

As he’s done the past two years with music, this year Largehearted Boy is compiling all the best books of 2008 lists in one place. I agree completely when he says “These year-end lists are one of my favorite things about the end of the year. . . I am constantly reading, but it seems like the more I read, even more books are published that look interesting. “Best of 2008” lists often introduce me to wonderful books or remind me of those lost in the shuffle of my hectic reading life.” The list will be updated regularly, so check back often. And check out the rest of the site for free music downloads and the extremely cool Book Notes series, where writers offer playlists that relate to their recent books. There are contributions from Harper Perennial authors Toby Barlow and Marcy Dermansky, among others.

In my family, we don’t give holiday presents. Both my sister and I have January birthdays, and our extended family is quite small, so we long ago decided to forgo the holiday presents and save money for birthdays. Each year, the only holiday present I buy is for my office Secret Santa. But, unlike me, you’re probably not a grinch, and so you’re probably gearing up to buy loads of presents very soon. May I (and many other bloggers) suggest buying books for the holidays? Buy Books for the Holidays is a great site supporting that very idea, with suggestions for all types of readers. After all, books are fairly inexpensive, allow you to support your local independent retailers if that’s what you’re into, and are easy to wrap. Plus, to answer the question “why books?”, check out this cool banner that I grabbed from the IndieBound site.

Very true.

From Christopher Miller, Harper Perennial author of the upcoming The Cardboard Universe (and not Christopher Miller, director of Shrek the Third or Chris Miller, writer of Animal House) come these two links. The first should be played at every funny part in his book, the second at every not-funny part (but who are we kidding, it’s a Harper Perennial book, it’s perfect!)

Funny

Not Funny

Today was the start of the Golden Notebook Project. Starting today, seven women writers, including Laura Kipnis (author of Against Love) are reading Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook and discussing it online. But not in a “yeah, I liked that part, it was nice” kind of way. More like the kind of discussions you, if you’re anything like me, really miss from your college English classes. Though the seven writers have committed to blogging and forum-posting for the next five or six weeks, anyone with a valid email address can read along and join in the dialogue.

Since this just started today, it’s not too late to get out and grab your own copy of The Golden Notebook (perhaps in our lovely deluxe modern classics edition, which just went on sale two weeks ago?).

Paperback Dreams is a documentary that follows two landmark independent bookstores and their struggle to survive. It features Andy Ross of Cody’s Books and Clark Kepler of Kepler’s Books over the course of two tumultuous years in the book business. Currently airing on PBS (click here for a schedule and screening around the country (click here for another schedule), it’s a tribute to the contributions of independents from the 70s to today, and important viewing for all of us who are into books.

If you’re in the NYC area, it’s screening at one of our favorite stores, McNally Jackson on Friday November 14th.

As is my blog m.o., I’ve failed to report in a timely manner on a great event. This past Sunday at KGB Bar we celebrated the publications of The Wrecking Ball by Christiana Spens and Down and Out on Murder Mile by Tony O’Neill. Christiana had the bad luck of falling sick on the eve of her flight from the UK so was unable to make her US debut. This left us in the capable (warm, generous) hands of Tony O’Neill who read to a crowded KGB. Free pizza and booze were available for an hour prior to the reading, and the audience, apparently unsatiated, booed their displeasure at the closing of the open bar. Tony prevailed with poems and the first chapter of his book, reading with characteristic flair, dropping into the slurred, drowsed voices of the addicts and dealers that populate his work. The energy of the event made such the impression that it garnered mention on the New Yorker‘s Book Bench, where Jenna Krajeski described the scene:

…as readings go, this one was a little like a rock concert. A tan-colored mutt, whom no one in the room could claim, roamed between our feet. A bleach blonde wore sunglasses indoors. During O’Neill’s reading—he began, apologetically, with four poems—a middle-aged couple near the front locked themselves into a prolonged kiss. The small room began to smell like cigarette smoke. People loudly booed the announcement that the bar would close during the actual reading. The novel’s newlyweds berated one another for spending their last fifty dollars on a marriage license, and not on drugs.

We just hope the mood travels. Tony will appear in Portland this weekend and Los Angeles and New Orleans the week after. Whether or not you can make an event, Down and Out on Murder Mile offers an excellent introduction to one of our favorite young writers.

One of my old roommates had a great system set up with his parents for birthday and Christmas presents. He would provide them with a wish list of items ranging in price, noting where they could purchase each thing. Each year, they would get him EXACTLY what was on his list. To someone who grew up getting slightly different variations on her requests every year, it was a miracle. Even if I asked for specific books, I still wouldn’t get them. But maybe if IndieBound‘s new wish list feature had been around, I would have. It works just like an amazon wish list, except there are helpful links on the side to your favorite indie bookstores, and you can send your wish list to parents, spouses, or friends with the click of a button. And aside from a weird glitch where I couldn’t add Stewart O’Nan’s Last Night at the Lobster to my list no matter how hard I tried (I’m a sucker for literature featuring Red Lobster), it works perfectly. You’ve got to sign up for the site, but it’s totally free and you should do it anyway to support independent bookstores. Go to it!