I couldn’t help but be captivated by a librarian’s recent call for help on Publib. He wanted to know how to get particularly powerful stenches out of books, especially cigarette smoke (”the evil weed”?). It’s a question I’ve pondered myself, though in a way I like this evidence of a past reader.

In any case, for those offended by odor, here’s what one responder offered up: Shake a mixture of baking soda and baby power in the the bottom on a box. Put an old oven rack over the mixture, put the books on the rack, then seal the box with tape for two weeks. To quote the poster, “It has worked on some really gross items.” Librarians truly rule—besides ordering, cataloging, and recommending books, they even clean them. But riddle me this: how best to extract melted chocolate from a (book) spine?

Ahoy!

Ta-da, here are the titles reviewed in our web-only, freely accessible Xpress Reviews section for Week of Nov. 28, 2006.

FICTION
Baldacci, David. The Collectors. Warner.

Uncertain Endings: Riddle and Puzzle Mystery Stories. Pegasus.

NONFICTION
Huffman, Felicity & Patricia Wolff. A Practical Handbook for the Boyfriend: What Every Girl Needs To Know. Hyperion.

Kapranos, Alex (text) & Andrew Knowles (illus.). Sound Bites: A World Tour of Eating with Franz Ferdinand. Penguin.

Lynch, David. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. Tarcher: Penguin.

Montague, Read. Why Choose This Book?: How We Make Decisions. Dutton.

Wilding, Jo. Don’t Shoot the Clowns: Taking a Circus to the Children of Iraq. New Internationalist, dist. by Consortium.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Cosmic Debris. Emily the Strange. Vol. 1. Dark Horse. (GN)

Kim, Sungmo. Emperor’s Castle. Vol. 1. Netcomics. (manhwa)

Kirkman, Robert (text) & Tom Raney & Ben Oliver (illus.). Ultimate X-Men. Vol. 14: Phoenix? Marvel. (GN)

Matsumoto, Temari. Shinobu Kokoro: Hidden Heart. BLU: Tokyopop. (yaoi manga)

Mizushiro, Setona. After School Nightmare. Vol. 1. Go! Comi. (manga)

Oeming, Michael Avon (text) & Travel Foreman (illus.). Ares: God of War. Marvel. (GN)

Shiomi, Chika. Night of the Beasts. Vol. 1. Go! Comi. (manga)

Tieri, Frank (text) & Clayton Henry (illus.). X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula. Marvel. (GN)

Tsuda, Mikiyo. Princess Princess. Vol. 1. Digital Manga. (manga)

Takashima, Kazusa. Man’s Best Friend. BLU: Tokyopop. (yaoi manga)

The end of the year is fast approaching and critics’ Best Books lists are starting to litter the literary landscape. Our sister magazine Publishers Weekly announced its top 100 picks a few weeks ago, and yesterday the New York Times issued its 100 notable books of 2006 (Its 10 Best Books of 2006 will be announced tomorrow on its web site.) And we LJ editors are in the final throes of making our choices, which will be announced online next month and published in our January issue.

While I always enjoy seeing what my fellow critics have chosen, one of my reviewers, Teresa  Jacobsen of Solana County Library, did raise an interesting question about best book lists when she admitted that she had only read one novel on the list (Anne Tyler’s Digging to America)! ” Is this what happens when you love thrillers and genre fiction?”, she emailed. ”Thankfully, the B & T collection development librarian put many of those titles on my ODC list this past year–and I did order them–so perhaps I’ll read a few next year.  I’m curious to see if the folks in Fairfield, CA will want to read them or if they will stick with Robert B. Parker and Nelson DeMille?”

Is this the old case of you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink? For years publishers have debated the impact of literary awards on book sales; many don’t see much difference. Does the same hold true for library circulation? One librarian seems to think so. On his blog ChipK.com, Ohio librarian “Chip” noted  that a “disturbing portion” of books his library purchased largely on the basis of positive reviews in LJ did not circulate at a rate that justified their purchase. His post implied that LJ reviews were a waste of taxpayer money. 

So what is LJ supposed to do? Review only the Stephen Kings, Dean Koontzs, the Nora Roberts,  and other authors whose circulation stats are guaranteed? That would make for a pretty shallow collection. Our young librarian friend also failed to take a good look at our LJ bestsellers column, which identifies the books most borrowed in U.S. libraries. Many of the titles making the cut had received strong or starred reviews in LJ: Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, Kim Edwards’s The Memory Keeper’s Daughter , and Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan  .

While I hope our reviews played an important part in these books’ success, marketing was also key. In the case of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, it only became a bestseller/best-circulator when the paperback edition was picked up by reading groups. No longer can librarians order books, shelve them, and hope that patrons will find them. Librarians have to take a more active role in promoting their collections through creative displays, readers’ advisory, book groups, and author programs. And the time to start is now with our 2006 Best Books List.   

The 25th anniversary of the detection of AIDS came and went this summer without much ado in the book market. If memory serves, only one dared tackle the state of the virus in the United States, Susan Hunter’s AIDS in America (Palgrave), which my reviewer thought too strident in its criticism of the Christian Right and the Bush administration.

The failure of this book and the lack of any others were a grave shame considering that AIDS is an epidemic in this country among African Americans (and is projected to become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2031), though you’d never know it unless you live in a predominantly black neighborhood (I do—Bed-Sty, Brooklyn, whose bus stops often bear ads for AIDS/HIV medication). As LJ reviewer Elizabeth Williams reports in her forthcoming collection development article on AIDS and African Americans (look for it in the January 15th, 2007 issue), although blacks make up only 13 percent of the population, they add up to 50 percent of Americans diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.  

With a figure like that, you’d think there’d be a bevy of print and A/V materials for consumers, but there are not. The value of our article lies in the precious resources Elizabeth managed to dig up (e.g., Eric Goosby’s Living with AIDS/HIV), as well as her informed weeding suggestions. I’ll post the link closer to publication, and I welcome you to offer up any other titles to augment the rather spare bibliography.

For those who care, here’s the 2007 Collection Development schedule in total:

• January 2007 African Americans & AIDS
• February 2007 Genealogy
• March 2007 Travel to Canada
• April 2007 Business of Nonprofits
• May 2007 Gay/Lesbian Fiction
• June 2007 Water Sports
• July 2007 Anime
• August 2007 Knitting
• September True Crime
• October Neuroscience
• November Punk Music
• December Regional Gardening (Northeast)

It’s the eve of the big Turkey Day, and I am making my annual plans to do some binge eating and film watching. Friday I am checking out the new blond Bond at an early screening of Casino Royale, based on Ian Fleming’s classic 1953 novel.  Saturday I am hitting the art houses for the film adaptation of Tom Perotta’s marvelous novel, Little Children. What to see on Sunday? How about a little-reviewed comedy called Let’s Go To Prison starring Arrested Development’s Will Arnett. What intrigues me is this movie is an “adaptation” of Jim Hogshire’s underground  You are Going to Prison. Published in 1994 by alternative publisher Loompanics Unlimited, which also issued John Hoffman’s classic The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving, this cult favorite was a self-help guide for the newly convicted on what to expect in prison.   At the time, I debated whether to send this book out for review. Would someone going to prison buy this book in a bookstore, borrow from a library, or just steal it from both? In the end, I passed on this title, to my regret. Because now it is a big Hollywood movie! Still, ten dollars is a lot of money to spend on a film that got a mixed review so maybe I’ll just Netflix it or….ahem…borrow from my local public library when it comes out on DVD. Happy Thanksgiving!

After a year of prodding on my part, LJ’s Editor, Francine Fialkoff, has ably tackled an issue that’s very close to my heart: online-only reviews. Read her editorial, and speak your mind here—or else.

Now that Rupert Murdoch has pulled the plug on the O.J. Simpson book/TV package (see Wilda Williams’s “The Juice Is Cooked” and “Sleazy Does It!”), it may seem pointless to dedicate any more space to the topic. But I can’t help but luxuriate in its anticlimactic end: Judith Regan, Simpson’s publisher at Regan Books, orchestrated and fanned a damnable furor only to have it stamped out by her Big Boss. This was, in fact, more shocking and titillating to me than the spin of the Simpson book and boob tube special. Why, you may ask?

Regan, as many publishing people know, has been manufacturing celebrity dreck for years without reprimand. Take last year’s autobiographical novel by celebutante Nicole Ritchie, The Truth About Diamonds, which mananged to make me livid on a Friday afternoon. This book is not fiction as it’s labeled—it’s straight-up, juice-drenched memoir, packaged with airbrushed glamour shots of Richie; in other words, another way to push celebrity gossip, not further contemporary fiction.

Of course, the Simpson project took Regan’s M.O. to a whole other level. But I never thought for a second that it would be too much for the American public to handle given how long we’ve been worshipping at the altar of the often sick and narcissistic rich and famous (remember Madonna’s Sex became a best seller in 1992 despite being slammed as pornography). That we did protest loudly enough in the Simpson case gives me hope for the future of standards in publishing, though I wouldn’t drop my guard when it comes to Regan.

As of today on LJ’s website you can read our web exclusive “Xpress review” of Inside the Jihad, by Omar Nasiri. This book was embargoed by its publisher, Basic Books, meaning that reviewing agencies and other media receiving it in advance of its release date (yesterday) had to sign a letter of agreement vowing to maintain the strictest confidentiality about its contents prior to that release. The BBC had first dibs on interviewing Nasiri (aired on November 15th), and Basic was not going to let the BBC get scooped.

Still, the day after that interview Mark Landler of the New York Times surely reviewed the book in his article (published first in the International Herald Tribune) about speaking with Mr. Nasiri in Paris on November 10th. Perhaps Landler, as a news reporter rather than a reviewer, did not feel himself bound by the strictures of a confidentiality agreement that his book review colleagues may have signed.  

Embargoing is usually not noted by the public, unless Harry Potter or the president of Pakistan are involved (and more likely only for the former). Whether it really promotes sales is a  question. Grisham and Rowling would be purchased no matter what.

It will be interesting to see how Nasiri does in comparison to  related recent titles.  The Secret History of al Qaeda, by Abdel Bari Atwan (University of California Press) and My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir, by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (Tarcher/Penguin) were not embargoed and will be reviewed in LJ’s December issue.

For a buzz-generating title, I prefer Gartenstein-Ross’s, but it may be the book’s worst enemy as it implies drama and intrigue not present in the book itself, which dwells more on the inner journey. Atwan, unlike the two memoirists here, is a journalist and may have the deepest dual understanding of the West and the Muslim world.

The particulars don’t really matter. The books each provide valuable information; their unique perspectives mean that libraries will benefit in adding all to their collections and not simply Nasiri’s. I feel bound to say this having played into Basic’s embargo buzz and sent our review of Nasiri online quickly, while our reviews of the other two will emerge next month in print. These are titles most valuable as a group, helping us all, as readers, grow in our understanding of the world we share, a process from which none of us is embargoed.  

Only two more days left! 

Ah, Turkey Day (and, um, Tofu Day for vegetarians?) is almost upon us. There’s nothing better than a holiday that revolves around giving thanks by preparing a giant, dead bird and eating it. Even my husband, who’s South African, thinks Thanksgiving is pretty rad (but then again, he thinks ostrich meat is a food group). Have a happy kicking-back, eating, and zoning out to you all!

On to the show: Xpress Reviews for Week of Nov. 21, 2006

NONFICTION
Duncan, Jody. The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio. Titan Bks., dist. by CDS.

Nasiri, Omar. Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda: A Spy’s Story. Basic Bks: Perseus.

Pryor, Rain with Cathy Crimmins. Jokes My Father Never Taught Me: Life, Love, and Loss with Richard Pryor. Regan Bks: HarperCollins.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Asuma, Mayumi. Elemental Gelade. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Card, Orson Scott (text) & Andy Kubert & Mark Bagley (illus.). Ultimate Iron Man. Vol. 1. Marvel.

Cebulski, C.B. (text) & Tommy Ohtsuka (illus.). New Mangaverse: The Rings of Fate. Marvel.

DeFalco, Tom (text) & Paul Ryan (illus.). Spider-Girl Presents Fantastic Five: In Search of Doom. Marvel.

Grillo-Marxuach, Javier (text) & Les McClaine (illus.). The Middleman. Vol. 2: The Second Volume of Inevitability. Viper Comics.

Ha, Sung-Hyen. Queens. Vol. 1. Tokyopop. 2006.

Kang, Eun-Young. Hissing. Vol. 1. ICE Kunion.

Kawachi, Izumi. Enchanter. Vol. 2. Digital Manga.

Lee, Ha-Na (text) & Kang-Ho Park. Heavenly Executioner Chiwoo. Vol. 2. ICE Kunion.

Lee, Youngran. June. Vol. 1. Netcomics.

Manhwa Novella Collection. Vol. 1: Lie to Me. Youngran Lee; Manhwa. Novella Collection. Vol 2: 9 Faces of Love. Wann; Manhwa. Novella Collection. Vol. 3: The Starry Night. Kimjin. ea. vol: Netcomics.

Lehmann, Matthias. Hwy. 115. Fantagraphics.

Millionaire, Tony. Premillennial Maakies. Fantagraphics.

Minazuki, Suu. Judas. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Miyagi, Tooko. Il Gatto Sul G. Vol. 2. Juné: Digital Manga.

Sasaki, Teiko (text) & Shoko Takaku (illus.). Kissing. Juné: Digital Manga.

SPRAY (text) & You Higuri (illus.). Gakuen Heaven. BLU: Tokyopop.

Tsuda, Mikiyo. The Day of Revolution. Vol. 1. Digital Manga.

Wells, Zub (text) & Patrick Scherberger & others (illus.). Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. Vol. 4: Concrete Jungle. Marvel.

Looks like librarians have been spared having to wrestle with their conscience about buying O.J. Simpson’s forthcoming theoretical tell-all, If I Did It.  News Corps announced today that it was cancelling the book and television special. Chairman Rupert Murdoch was quoted as saying, “I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.” Ill-considered?  Really? What were Murdoch and the rest of the people involved in this project thinking? Did they really believe that no one would object? Have we become so morally debased that making money is more important than simple justice or basic human decency? As for O.J., to have written this book about the murder of his children’s mother, he has gone way beyond the pale.