Friday Finds

Three excellent finds (one purchased, two free and found completely randomly) mark the end of a truly exhausting work week.

- Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore - I am already about thirty pages into this one, and yet, I had to go back and review the title while typing this up. Why? Not because the book isn't a sheer pleasure to read, but because I never stopped to look at the title. I saw "Lorrie Moore" on a galley laying in one of our up-for-grabs boxes in the backroom and snatched it up before someone quicker and smarter than me could get at it.

- Impossible by Nancy Werlin - So, lightning does strike twice in one week, in the the same spot nonetheless. I have been considering Impossible for a while, but I just couldn't get off the fence of read/not read until it came out in paperback this week. So, I was considering buying the paperback, because I had heard really good buzz with the book, and it seemed like it could be up my alley

- Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform - I picked this one up right before his talk and signing at the store today. It appealed to me for two reasons: 1) It's a supposedly straight-forward, easy-to-follow take on the healthcare plan and 2) I could get it signed then and there. Maureen also took a photo of me with Dean (after I was too tongue-tied to really talk to him), which I will post ASAP.

Because I have two wonderful followers, I will go ahead and ask it anyway: In your mind, is there a perfect spread to a week's worth of book finds? Would it be nice to add a book a day, or maybe two or three good finds spread through the week? What's your ideal?

NPR's "Best Beach Books Ever"

Knicked from the fabulous Boston Bibliophile is the NPR "100 Best Beach Books Ever."

In bold are the ones I have read.

*Starred* = Want to read, planning to read, etc.

Underlined = What the hell? Picks that are confounding either because they don't make sense as a beach read or because I simply don't think they deserve a spot on the list.

NPR's 100 Best Beach Books Ever

1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling - All except the last book (which I'm going to start, promise, any day now).

2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

3. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini*

4. Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding

5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells - Weird, right? Cause my tastes really don't run to the chick lit at all, and this one is pure chick lit. It has "sisterhood" in the title, for God's sake... But I read it on a car trip with my mom back when I was fourteen or fifteen years old. We didn't have the audio book, so I just read it aloud to her.

7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald - This is my kind of beach book.

8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams - Correction, this is my kind of beach book. Actually, I'd probably just listen to the fantastic BBC Radio series instead.


9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg - I went through a serious Fannie Flagg stage when I was thirteen or fourteen. Can't say why. Just loved it, though.

10. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

11. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

12. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel - Can't see this one as a beach book, other than it being a bestseller.

13. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

14. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

15. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

16. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

17. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett

18. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

19. Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides* - This is perpetually on my reading list, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a beach book.

20. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen - Don't know about for the beach (probably a good fit) but it was perfect reading for the 24-hour read-a-thon last Fall.

21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain*

22. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver - Beach-goers really love the Kingsolver, don't they? Wonder why Prodigal Summer isn't on the list.

23. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith - Little interest in actually reading the books, but I have to admit, hearing the little bit from the audio books my mother plays in her car, the audio version is pretty charming.

24. The World According to Garp, by John Irving*

25. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller*

26. The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy

27. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel

28. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

29. The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler

30. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

31. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole*** - I'm working on a reading project for the Fall, loosely entitled "Back to Basics" where I'm going to try and read a bunch of classics and contemporary, modern favorites that I haven't yet gotten time for. This one is at the top of my list.

32. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

33. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant

34. Beach Music, by Pat Conroy

35. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez* - Is there a confusion between what is "beach" reading and what is required high school "summer" reading?

36. Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier

37. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card*

38. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry

39. The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough

40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon - I bought my copy of this book in a beach town independent bookstore.

41. Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett

42. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

43. Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice

44. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier

45. Empire Falls, by Richard Russo

46. Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes

47. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

48. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins

49. I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb

50. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie* - The only AC I've read is Ten Little Indians [or, in PC times, And Then There Were None]. Agatha Christie would have scarcely been a blip if it were not for vacationing mystery enthusiasts and shore-side bookstalls that are always readily stocked with her paperback titles.

51. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott - Obsessed with this book as a kid. Read it everywhere, beach included. If I ever find the green hardbacked version that I always borrowed from the library, I will die of happiness.

52. The Stand, by Stephen King* - Probably a "B2B" title.

53. She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb

54. Dune, by Frank Herbert

55. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows* - Almost read this on my last vacation. The person I was traveling with bought this book the second or third day in.

56. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez*

57. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

58. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

59. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo

60. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

61. Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver - Seriously, but no Prodigal Summer?

62. Jaws, by Peter Benchley

63. Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner

64. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner

65. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson - In this version of "beach reads," anything that maintained a spot on the bestsellers lists for a long time counts. I don't think this book qualifies as a beach read, but then again, neither do half of these titles by my definition.

66. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

67. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand

68. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut

69. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

70. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler*

71. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

72. The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy

73. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns

74. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

74. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe [tie]

76. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

77. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon

78. The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher

79. Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver - Woo hoo! One of two Kingsolver books I've read. This one is similar to her others, I believe. The only real difference is that I had to read this one for my "Eco-Feminist Literature" class.

80. Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett

81. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck*

81. The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve [tie]

83. All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy

84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson* - Never finished. Heard that it picks up after a slow beginning. Will try it again soon.

85. The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery - Who reads this on the beach?

86. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

87. One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich

88. Shogun, by James Clavell

89. Dracula, by Bram Stoker*

90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera*

91. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow

92. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger

93. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

94. Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris

95. Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume - Back during those years where I could stand Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood... Still, Blume is a genius at crafting feminine relationships. There is stuff in Summer Sisters that echoes even my present-day female friendships.

96. The Shining, by Stephen King

97. How Stella Got Her Groove Back, by Terry McMillan

98. Lamb, by Christopher Moore*

99. Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen - Wondered when Carl Hiaasen would make an appearance on this list.

100. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson - Because it has island in the title?

Friday Finds

After the heaping loads of the last two weeks, I took it easy on my bookshelves and bank account and only grabbed a few items.

- Our GM, Chris, handed over the ARC of the upcoming Margaret Atwood, Year of the Flood, for which I'm psyched for. Atwood is usually the opposite of light-hearted, and with the summer waning (really, August? Already?) I'm not sure if I'm in the best of spirits to be sinking into one of her complex, heavy-duty novels. That being said, I'll probably start it this coming week. Immersing yourself in children's literature has many, many rewards, but there's a significant shortage of depressing yet brilliant books written for young audiences. Whenever I find myself getting into a rut with what I'm reading for kids, I turn to adult titles to shake up my system, whether its with heavily plotted morality plays, wickedly crafted murder mysteries, wry, ironic statements on present popular culture... even the occasional horror title... Sometimes I read myself into such a coming-of-age hole that the only thing that can save me is a good old gory monster story.

Three from the Scholastic box that arrived today:
- Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve - He's a favorite among intermediate-level enthusiasts, and I've never read any of his stuff. Why not start out with this very intriguing upcoming release? This one's a fantasy-mystery about an orphan discovering her roots through assisting an archaeologist with a top-secret mission. Oh, and I want the coat the illustrated girl is wearing on the cover of the ARC. This one comes out April 2010.

- The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco Stork - Because I really liked Marcelo in the Real World, and this one sounds pretty heady. Out March 2010.

- Smile by Raina Telgemeier - A graphic novel about a girl getting braces. I'm a sucker for this type of cute comic thing. They're surprisingly hard to sell on people, though, but as Wimpy Kid gets bigger and bigger, the profile on young kid-friendly graphic novels may go up, and customers might respond better to something that at first seems juvenile and beside the point. This one hits February 2010.

And one from the Random House box I received a few weeks back:
- THree Rivers Rising by Jame Richards - A YA title about the Johnstown Flood, a topic that is close to my heart: My mother grew up in Johnstown, PA, and we still have relatives living in the town and around the area. I've been to the Johnstown Flood Museum many, many times, watched the same old rickety informational film, watched as the diorama lit up and flooded with water, walked the trail, stood around half-bored as family members read every plaque and information post available.

So yeah, I'm going to read this ASAP. Besides, I love historical/disaster YA titles.

Re-Post: Galley Talk

Okay, so this appeared in last week's "Children's Bookshelf," a children's literature email newsletter by the friendly and invaluable folks at Publishers Weekly. I have made no edits to increase the slickness or better the language of this review. This is exactly what was published:

Emily Fear, manager of children’s books, Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Pittsburgh, Pa., talks about a fall favorite, Candor by Pam Bachorz.

Candor by Pam Bachorz (Egmont USA, Sept.) is a Stepford Wives-esque tale—the galley even references that novel. But instead of a novel about the brainwashing of wives, this is about brainwashing an entire community, especially its teenagers. The founder of the town of Candor tries to shape what he believes should be model teens—down to what they should eat and how they should dress. He plants subliminal messages into audio CDs that play nearly constantly throughout the town. Everyone becomes addicted to the CDs and has to keep listening to them—otherwise they’ll go insane.

The novel doesn’t pull any of the punches you might expect from a YA thriller. You might expect a tidy ending or a hero whose motives are unquestionable and who has noble intentions. But this novel’s protagonist is very flawed. He’s the son of the town’s founder and runs a secret business selling teens CDs to counteract the brainwashing. But actually he’s also brainwashing them—and doing it for profit. There’s a totally unexpected ending that defies the reader’s expectations of what this character is capable of.

I’d recommend this book to customers for a number of reasons. This is a very intelligent teenage thriller, and a spooky one. The novel offers a dark twist on society’s expectations of teens, revealing an exaggerated form of parental authority. I think teens will respond to the notion of what it would be like to have the pressures on them magnified like this. The plot’s pacing is really well done and the action is creepy without being violent. Well, there’s a tiny bit of violence, but nothing very graphic. The gleefully misanthropic protagonist is very likable despite his flaws. And the relationships between the characters are really dynamic.

It’s an incredible first novel, and the fact that the author wrote it while living in Celebration, Florida, the planned community developed by Disney, makes it all the creepier. It’s a great crossover book, especially since so many adults have read or seen the film version of Stepford Wives.

Friday Finds... because I can't seem to do anything else

Hoo boy, well that big self-reprimand I gave myself last week turned out to be hot air... or it's computing, internet equivalent... because all I managed to churn out last week was a Friday Finds (however extensive it was, it was still just a meme).

Alright, after this post, I will re-post something here that appeared last week in Publisher's Weekly's weekly newsletter, "Children's Bookshelf." I was interviewed for a "Galley Talk" column, where they ask you a bunch of general questions about an upcoming release and you answer as well as possible (on the fly) and then the put your answers into a somewhat coherent review. Why bother, right? If the woman asked me to write a review, in an hour I could have sent her in something comparable to what was published (if not better). But okay, I'll re-post it here, because so far only my mother has read it... And I like attention...

On with the finds!

So this week's finds come almost exclusively from impromptu trip to Half Price Books. I don't always land a huge pile when I go there - I tend to be a bit picky about editions and prices - but this was a fairly successful venture. I went looking to pick up Madeline L'Engle's entire "Time Quartet" and I was not disappointed:

- A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters by Madeline L'Engle - Not only did I get the entire foursome for a steal, but they're all the same edition (which I was hoping for, but I was willing to settle if need be). I read WiT when I was a kid - my mother kind of forced me (thanks Mom!) - and I've been dying to re-read it ever since I read When You Reach Me. I never did make it through the entire series, however, so this is a good time to give it a go again.

- The Long Walk by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) - This and another Bachman book, The Running Man, are obvious inspirations for one of my favorite books of last year, The Hunger Games. I've read all about this one, so I was glad to finally snag a copy. However, if anyone ever finds an old edition in a used bookstore or thrift store (etc.) please get it for me, and I'll pay you twice what you paid. I love the old paperback cover of this book, and the new one just doesn't hold the same pulpy terror.

- Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote - Because I don't own it, it's terrific, and at Half Price Books, mass market paperbacks are half the cover price. This old paperback cost $1.50 list price... So $.75 for a classic isn't so bad.

- Foundation and Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov - I have a hard time swallowing hard science fiction (my taste runs toward not the fantastic side, but science fiction with a larger emphasis on literary themes than detailing and exploring the machinery inhabiting the world - I want to know the why, not the how, basically), but I like Asmiov, and I've been wanting to get more of his books.

- The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. LeGuin - LeGuin is my favorite science fiction author, one of my favorite writers period. Reading Lathe of Heaven changed the way I felt about science fiction and fantasy, so while I/m not really a completist with most authors, I am with her.



- The Night of the Gun by David Carr - I heard a lot about this book upon its release, so when we found the hardback on the discount shelves for $2.00, I begged and pleaded with my roommate (another devoted bibliophile) to hand it over. He eventually did.



Not bad for one hour's visit. There were a few galleys that came my way, but nothing extraordinary seeming. Our general manager, Chris, handed over a hardback copy of Joyce Maynard's new book, Labor Day, but I think I'm going to pass it on.

Oh, and I just finished Jincy Willett's The Writing Class - the author's ability to mercilessly poke fun at her own self is once again used to great effect. I won't say anything more on the subject except for this: If you have ever taken a writing workshop, if you have frequented them, if you have only taken one, you need to read this story.

friday finds

It was a busy week, and this week is going to be even busier at the store, as Monday marks the first of our week-long Band Camp. I'm armed with random junk, kazoos, poster board, and Ann Wiseman's beyond excellent Making Music. The first day of June's Superhero Camp was pretty rough, but I have a better idea of what to expect, and hopefully with something more tangible as teaching basics of music and rhythm to the kids, there will be more active things to do and discuss.

But I don't want to just do Friday Finds (as fun as it is to keep track of my incoming books), so I'll try to keep the blog as fresh as possible this week. I finished both Knife of Never Letting Go and the upcoming Candor, and there's a lot to discuss regarding both books. I didn't intentionally seek out two like texts, but in the process of finishing Candor, I realized that there were a lot of parallels to both its and KNLG's storylines. Both feature male protagonists who are both insiders to their horrifying worlds, but outsiders because of the presence of disparate perspectives and willingness to defy the momentum of the status quo. So, hopefully, more on both of those books later this week.

Onto the Friday Finds! Only a day or so after my last Friday Finds post, I received a big box of Random House ARCs, and I have to say that this may have been one of the best promotional boxes I've gotten in a long time. I put a lot of the books on my galley shelves in the storage closet, but I snagged a large amount for myself. Among the selections in the box:

- A two-in-one ARC for the Looking Glass Library release of The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit and The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald.

- Dream Life by Lauren Mechling, the follow-up to Dream Girl Coming out January 2010.

- Party by Tom Leveen - Entitled teens at a party - Yay for underage debauchery! Coming out April 2010.

- The Smart Aleck's Guide to American History by Adam Selzer - I love The Smart Aleck's Guide series, and I still hold a fondness for Dave Barry's Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States, so I'm looking forward to this one. It's coming out December 2009, and I think it could be a great Christmas sell.

- The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone. Truth be told, the cover sucked me in one this one, but as I learned with The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, sometimes that's all you need to clue you into a great read. This is an art mystery, similar in sound to Blue Balliet, Mystery of the Third Lucretia, etc. Comes out February 2010.

- The Knife That Killed Me by Anthony McGowan. High School-set thriller coming out April 2010.

- All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab. Mystery thriller, featuring the mean, rich, elite of a private school. I don't read enough murder mysteries featuring bitchy teenagers. This one looks like it will be more than a cut above the rest. Comes out January of 2010.

- Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray. Three boys strike revenge on those they believe responsible for their friend's death. Set in England and Scotland, I'm very, very excited for this one. Coming out March 2010. [By the way, kudos to Random House for getting these ARCs out super early. It's not always a great thing to be laden down with galleys, especially if you get them only a month or so before the release date. Getting them far in advance gives you a chance to really get into each title, increasing the publisher's chances of having you not just read the book, but enthuse about it, build up excitement about it, etc.]

-Notes From the Dog, the latest release by Gary Paulsen, who has always been hit or miss with me, but this one sounds pretty promising. It comes out this Tuesday, so I'm hoping to get a jump on this title. Also, I'm chasing after Wendy Lamb books these days, because I've had such good experiences with their releases.

-Split by Swati Avasthi. Another March 2010 release, this one an intense coming of age about a runaway moving in with his estranged brother.

So, those were my RH box grabs - There were at least three or four other books that I left on the shelves that I may go back for. Right now, I'm going to try and get through at least one of these galleys a week.

Other grabs:

- The Writing Class by Jincy Willett - Because I am a cheap bastard at heart, I was waiting for this one to come out in paperback. Not that I don't think she's every bit worth the twenty-some dollars for the hardback. Willett may be my favorite writer, and I've only read Winner of the National Book Award. I just started this one, and even though I'm only ten pages in, I'm pretty sucked in. And as a former English Lit/writing student, the use of a creative writing workshop as a backdrop for a murder mystery appeals to every bit of my sense of humor.

-A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century by Jane Vandenburgh. I've read quite a bit about this memoir, and I've liked the sound of it, so when I saw this in a box of ARCs, I grabbed it immediately. I don't tend to jump into memoirs like I used to, but I'll give this one a read very soon.

That's it for the finds. Wish every week could be as lucrative in books (although my bookshelves must certainly be relieved that this kind of windfall only happens occasionally).

Friday Finds

Another slow week of finds.

- The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - I picked this up when it came out in paperback on Tuesday. I received The Ask and the Answer (the second book in the Chaos Walking trilogy), so I needed to read the first book. I'm about done, and it's pretty great: suspenseful, scary at points, with a really interesting protagonist, and a mystery that is only now being somewhat unfolded. The way Ness is using the constant stream of telepathy is very clever, and it's a premise that is working in ways I wouldn't have immediately thought.

- Candor by Pam Bachorz - Upcoming release from Egmont USA's fall line-up. I'm very excited about Egmont USA, especially after receiving their catalog of fall releases yesterday. Candor is a Stepford Wives-esque tale about a boy living in a small community in Florida who runs a profitable business providing anti-brainwashing CDs to his fellow teenagers. Trouble - having already began with the whole brainwashing business in the first place - continues with the arrival a new girl in town and the obvious complications falling for her presents. After reading the review in Shelf Awareness, I was eager to get my hands on this title - the West Coast rep for Random House was nice enough to send a copy over to my store.

Hey! There's a book trailer for Candor:


Not totally sure how I feel about book trailers. Mostly silly stuff, to be honest. Most book trailers I've seen have been foolish attempts to capture a market that is way more invested in already produced sight and sound, then whatever they can attempt to create in their own imaginations while reading. It's not a bad gimmick, but I haven't seen it used to its best effects yet.

The best attempt I've seen of late is Quirk Book's trailer for the upcoming Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Very cute:


Hmm... that was it for the week. A box of upcoming Random House titles should be coming any day, however, so I'll have a lot of finds in the near future.

I haven't been keeping up on my book buying, for one because I just moved and I'm trying to get all the books I already own sorted out, and two, because I'm trying to save a little money for the things that a new apartment requires, and three... well, I'm should catch up a bit before overloading myself again. Fall ARC season is coming, and I know I can't resist the impossible lure of books that are free for the taking. But it's cut down a whole lot on my used book buying, and buying the occasional full price gem at my store or any random other book store.

Still, there's a bargain bookstore in my new neighborhood that I have been meaning to try out. I haven't heard very positive things, but they did have an original Mysteries of Pittsburgh paperback (with the old cover, of course) in the window for a time, so they can't be completely devoid of interesting finds.