Books don’t have feathers; books are not birds, but I’m going to apply the old saying about sticking together anyways because it’s Thursday, and my multitasking brain is leaking out of my ears. But to the point, dear readers: I’ve come across two forthcoming titles that are made for each other, possibly for the same audience

They are Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (May, Twelve: Warner; see LJ 4/15/07), which—and I’m slipping into Sneak Peak mode here—our reviewer C. Brian Smith dubbed “provocative, challenging, and passionate,” and Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion (April, AMACOM).

I’m going to try to make this a regular blog series. Call it off-the-cuff reader’s advisory. Do add any further like reads.

• 8:15-9:00           Registration and Buffet Breakfast
• 9:15-10:15         The most banned children’s book of the year: Authors Peter Parnell (playwright, author of QED; screenwriter/producer for West Wing and The Guardian) and Justin Richardson, MD [co-author of Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know about Sex (But Were Afraid They’d Ask)], their editor, David Gale (S. & S.), and  librarian Pat Scales discuss the creation of And Tango Makes Three and the reaction to it. 
• 10:15-11:30       Editor’s hot picks: Top editors from adult trade houses reveal what fiction and nonfiction you should be buying for the fall and what the latest trends to watch are.
• 11:30-11:40       Break
• 11:40-12:15       LJ Talks to:  A conversation with a long-time editor/publisher.
• 12:15-1:15        Lunch
• 1:15-2:30        YA crossover: Many books speak to both adults and young people, but how do the editors and authors make the decision to pitch them to one audience or the other—or both. (TK).
• 2:30-2:40         Break
• 2:40-3:55        Romance: An editor, author, reviewer, and librarian discuss the latest trends in the most popular genre, including erotica, ebooks and e-marketing, and more.  Panelists include Eloisa James, whose latest book, due in June from Avon is Desperate Duchesses, and Kris Ramsdell, LJ’s romance columnist.   
• 3:55-4:00       Wrap up.
• 4:00-5:00       Cocktails

Although I am a slave to my gray tuxedo cat (see Mr. Felix below), I usually despise cat mysteries or any other kind of fiction involving felines, canines, or any other creature, great or small (with the exception of the classic and very rabbity Watership Down).

 

But as a former senior scribe of my high school’s Latin Club (also known as the Junior Classical League), I couldn’t resist when British mystery book blog, Euro Crime, posted a story (”All Hail Spartapuss!) about a new children’s series set in an ancient Rome ruled by cats.

  

The publisher Mogzilla say the books are ”based partly on historical events as recorded by the great classical writers Tacitus and Suetonius”. The first book, I am Spartapuss, tells the story of a slave from the Land of the Kitons who becomes a Roman gladiator (or is that cat-iator?). This is followed by Catigula and Die Clawdius. If only I had these in Latin class!

In other feline news, the New York Times reports today that Grand Central Publishing  (the former Warner Books) is paying $1.25 million for the rights to publish the life story of Dewey, a rescued cat who lived for 19 years in the public library in Spencer, Iowa. Wow! That would buy a lot of cat food and kitty litter.

Dewey’s biographer is librarian Vicki Myron who will co-write Dewey, a Small Town, a Library and the World’s Most Beloved Cat with Bret Witter, a former editorial director at Health Communications, the publisher of the “Chicken Soup for the Soulâ€? books.

And in a related NYT story, “Home Cooking for  Pets is Suddenly Not So Odd“, pet owners are starting to prepare home cooked meals for Fido and Fluffy in light of the recent Menu Foods tainted food crisis. As a result, sales of pet cookbooks like Real Food For Dogs and Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diet are rising. If you have these and other pet culinary titles in your collection, you might do a special display for your  pet-loving patrons. 

 

This morning a fellow editor left  a copy of Stephen King’s April 6 Entertainment Weekly column in my chair. HIs latest The Pop of King editorial, “How to Bury a Book” raved about Mischa Berlinksi’s debut novel, Fieldwork and chastised publisher Farrar Straus & Giroux for failing to  better market the book. “Under the drab title and the drab cover, there’s a story that cooks like a mother,” he writes.

 

 A few months ago in an another EW column, “The Secret Gardiner”, King sang the praises of Meg Gardiner, an American thriller writer living and published in Britain.  Lo and behold, shortly after the column appeared, Dutton acquired the U.S. rights to publish her five novels plus two new ones.

Not surprisingly there will probably be increased demand for Fieldwork. A quick check of the New York Public Library’s Leo catalog shows 18 holds for the system’s 11 copies. I would be curious to hear from other libraries about patron response to King’s editorial. Still, I feel a little resentment at how the opinion of one person can sway millions of reading decisions, especially since a few months ago a librarian blogger complained that books that received positive LJ reviews didn’t circulate in his library (Best Books=Best Circulating?).

Hiya,

Here are the titles reviewed in our web-only, freely-accessible Xpress Reviews section. Don’t forget to add Xpress Reviews to your RSS reader!

Xpress Reviews for Week of Apr. 3rd, 2007

FICTION
Baldacci, David. Simple Genius. Warner.

Connelly, Michael. The Overlook. Little, Brown.

Harris, Charlaine. All Together Dead. Ace: Berkley, dist. by Penguin Group (USA).

Mostert, Natasha. Season of the Witch. Dutton.

Milton, Giles. Edward Trencom’s Nose: A Novel of History, Dark Intrigue, and Cheese. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s.

White, Kate. Lethally Blond. Warner.

NONFICTION
Good Birders Don’t Wear White: 50 Tips from North America’s Top Birders. Houghton.

Hine, Robert V. & John Mack Faragher. Frontiers: A Short History of the American West. Yale Univ.

Katzenstein, Larry. Living with Heart Disease: Everything You Need To Know To Safeguard Your Health and Take Control of Your Life. AARP: Sterling.

Kingsolver, Barbara with Steven L. Hopp & Camille Kingsolver. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. HarperCollins.

Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion. AMACOM: American Management Assn.

Rinzler, J.W. The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film. Del Rey.

Witt, Carolinda. The 10-Minute Rejuvenation Plan: T5T; The Revolutionary Exercise Program That Restores Your Body and Mind. Three Rivers: Crown.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Ando, Natsumi & Miyuki Kobayashi. Kitchen Princess. Vol. 1. Del Rey: Ballantine.

Carey, Mike (text) & Glenn Fabry (illus.). Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. Vertigo: DC Comics.

Chiba, Tomohiro & others (text) & Tokita, Kouichi (illus.). Mobile Suit Gundam SEED X ASTRAY. Vol. 2. Tokyopop.

Ma, Wing Shing. Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword. Vol. 1. DrMaster.

Remender, Rick & Kieron Dwyer (text) & Paul Harmon (illus.). Sea of Red. Vol. 3: The Deadlights. Image Comics.

Shaw, Dash. The Mother’s Mouth. Alternative Comics.

Takada, Rie. Punch! Vol. 3. Viz Media.

Tanemura, Arina. The Gentlemen’s Alliance †. Vol. 1. Viz Media.

Today in a web-exclusive interview, librarian and LJ reviewer Andrea Tarr chats with author Tawni O’Dell whose new novel Sister Mine is an April BookSense pick. 

 

Find out how O’Dell’s upbringing in Pennsylvania’s coal-mining country has shaped her fiction.

Look Ma! I’m on time!

We’ve got fiction, nonfiction, audio, and graphic novel reviews for you this week in our web-only, freely-accessible Xpress Reviews section…with cover images! Shiny! And remember, you can always add Xpress Reviews to your RSS reader.

Xpress Reviews for Week of Mar. 27th, 2007

FICTION
Carcaterra, Lorenzo. Chasers. Ballantine.

Greene, Jennifer & others. Like Mother, Like Daughter (but in a Good Way). Harlequin Next.

Hand, Elizabeth. Generation Loss. Small Beer.

Montiel, Dito. Eddie Krumble Is the Clapper. Thunder’s Mouth: Avalon, dist. by Publishers Group West.

Sharpe, Matthew. Jamestown. Soft Skull.

Smith, Wilbur. The Quest. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s.

NONFICTION
Figgis, Mike. Digital Filmmaking: The Essential Guide to the Digital Film Revolution. Faber & Faber.

Koff, Ashley. Recipes for IBS: Great-Tasting Recipes and Tips for Your Systems. Fair Winds: Quayside.

AUDIO
Clarke, Richard A. Breakpoint. Books on Tape.

Grimes, Martha. Dust. Books on Tape.

Kellerman, Jesse. Trouble. Books on Tape.

Tademy, Lalita. Red River. Books on Tape.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Akimoto, Yasushi (text) & Mayumi Shihou (illus.). One Missed Call 1 + 2. Dark Horse.

Campbell, T. (text) & Amy Mebberson (illus.). Divalicious! Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

[composite review] Ellis, Warren (text) & Adi Granov (illus.). Iron Man: Extremis. Marvel.
Knauf, Daniel & Charles Knauf & Patrick Zircher (illus.). Iron Man: Execute Program. Marvel.

Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor. Vol. 2. Dark Horse.

Kuper, Peter. Stop Forgetting To Remember. Crown.

Miyasaka, Kaho. Kare First Love. Vol. 10. Viz Media.

Shinjo, Mayu. Sensual Phrase. Vol. 18. Viz Media.

Tamura, Yumi. Basara. Vol. 22. Viz Media.

Tanabe, Yellow. Kekkaishi. Vol. 8. Viz Media.

Yoshinaga, Fumi. Ichigenme…The First Class Is Civil Law. Vol. 1. 801 Media: Digital Manga.

Yumeka, Sumomo. The Day I Become a Butterfly. Juné: Digital Manga.

It’s been a year now since Pegasus Books launched its list—and if LJ’s reviews are any indication, this New York City independent deserves a P. Diddy–style anniversary celebration, complete with Cristal and a novelty book cake. Over the last few months, we have reviewed David Brown’s Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music and Roger Osborne’s Civilization: A New History of the Western World. Between April and May, we’ll cover Nicholas Kenyon’s The Pegasus Pocket Guide to Mozart, Ted Mitchell’s Thomas Wolfe: An Illustrated Biography, and Ed Gorman’s Fools Rush In.

Every one has garnered high praise, if not a star, and I can’t help but be amazed. Publisher Claiborne Hancock, who acquired titles at Carroll & Graf for many years, seems to have a hound’s nose for quality, and I only hope it will translate to big-time makings. The world needs more presses like this little winged pony, which very wisely deals in that library staple, mystery. For my part, I love their spin on biography, which seems to combine a highly personalized point of view with upper-crust research and quirky miscellany. Fly high, Pegasus. Here’s to a very good year.

So I didn’t assign this book. I didn’t even handle the galley, but I didn’t have to do either to know it’s more bloggable than Hilary Clinton catching herpes. A Book Addict’s Treasury by Julie Rugg and Lynda Murphy (April, Frances Lincoln; see LJ 4/15/07 for the complete review) seems to go beyond your Roget’s by ”following the threads of ideas in what can often resemble a conversation between authors from different centuries.” The quotes, 350 in total, come from the likes of Erasmus, Edith Wharton, Umberto Eco, Descartes, and Groucho Marx and consider every imaginable aspect of the writing life.

To quote the irreverent press release, “Indeed, if you buy only one book this year, this one is probably not for you.” Sounds like my kind of pulp. Fans of this kind of anthology might also like these recommended reads from our Book Review database: Anne Fadiman’s Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader, Maureen Corrigan’s Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading, and Anna Quindlen’s How Reading Changed My Life.

I know we review editors are supposed to judge books by the quality of their prose, but call me shallow, I love this cover! I love the retro-Art Deco Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers/Metropolis feel. And the back cover is great too, featuring hands pulling on bright teal-blue gloves against a bright comic-book yellow background.

The comic book reference is no accident for Soon I Will Be Invincible (Pantheon, June) is a first novel by video game designer Austin Grossman following the adventures of evil Doctor Impossible, a failed wannabe world dominator, and Femme, a female cyborg/rookie superhero.  And the jacket’s designer? None other than the legendary graphic designer and Knopf associate art director Chip Kidd, who has his own passion for superheros like Superman. For a full overview of  his work see his Chip Kidd: Work 1986-2006.