- Publishers Weekly reports that total bookstore sales have taken a 1.0% dip in January — this, as retail as a whole rose 4.0%. The question, and perhaps this is something that booksellers might answer here, is whether or not this represents a definitive death knell. Do people feel less inclined to purchase books in January because they are too busy reading the books they received for Christmas?
- Lee Goldberg contends with a nutjob.
- Nick Hornby goes YA. The book will tell the tale of a young boy terrified of saying anything even remotely bad against the books he reads and chronicles his transformation from a writer of promise to a dull and uninteresting person.
- Go Firmin go!
- I try to keep my literary ecstasy at a minimum here, reserving my praise for titles that truly deserve it. But Lionel Shriver’s The Post-Birthday World is most definitely worth your time. It may just be my favorite book of 2007 (so far). I’m afraid that I was slow on the draw trying to line up an outlet where I could set forth my thoughts on this ambitious and extremely interesting novel at length, outlining the book’s pitch-perfect observations about relationships and its fascinating riffs upon life choices. Thankfully, Heller McAlpin offers a few reasons why. While I may not get my two hours back from Sliding Doors, I’m very glad that Shriver’s book has made up for that cinematic atrocity.
- Francine Prose has been named the president of PEN. I can’t think of a better person for the job.
Roundup
– March 13, 2007Posted in: Roundup
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
Didn’t know if you had seen this…..Poddy Mouth has called it a day.
http://girlondemand.blogspot.com/
Francine’s prose is a big yawn. Hopefully her PEN work will be better.