Publishing Insider

Horse Sense 2

Here's the rest of the tour for that wonderful book from Soho Press: Susan Richard's CHOSEN BY A HORSE: June 5 Author Breakfast Buttonwood Books; June 10 Oblong Books & Music You can also catch owner Dick Hermans on the radio.) ; June 15 The Book Vault Wallingford, CT; June 17 Books Etc. Falmouth ME; June 20 Bear Pond Books Montpelier, VT; July 19 7:30pm Newtonville Books Newton, MA

Superfreak-onomics

It was great to finally meet the pair o' Steves at BEA. Stephen Dubner attended several bookseller events and signings, and Steven Levitt flew in specially just for Friday evening to acccept the Book Sense Nonfiction Book of the Year Award. Wonderful of him to do that. And they continue to generate buzz and sales, with more TV to come and a cool website.

What are the odds?

A lovely weekend, though I had several run-ins with things mechanical and electrical. Which is par for the course, but I'd be a bit more patient if I at least plugged the damned things in right the first time, i.e. getting the new one-prong-larger cord plugs in right the first time at anything approaching the 50% of the time that odds would state! If I hit the plug-in-socket right 1 time out of 10, I'm lucky. Is it just me?

Thurber's magic bus

Hanging out 'til the traffic clears; you all go on ahead. Got Magic Bus on XM; no, I'm not airguitaring. I'm insulted you would think that. Okay, I've stopped. Ooh, Traffic's Paper Sun on now. But speaking of trippy.....

Omigod, I wasn't expecting what I found in our new edition of Secret Lives of Walter Mitty and James Thurber. The first half is a the good ol' chestnut about Mitty, with new illustrations, but then comes Thurber's take on his childhood, as compared to Dali's!  It's bizarre and sweet; check it out.

High school musical

Just writing to say that I was so happy to see my daughter's entire high school turn out for a spring concert and perform, a little shakily at times but always earnestly, some great jazz and pop standards. And to see public school teachers and students come together like this was extra wonderful; they seem to really like each other! My little one, the only blonde in the school, was a stage hand and loves the school and has great friends, and, well, I'm thrilled that a city environment can match the nostalgically remembered days of small town life...and often surpass it.

Pinky

Wanted to take a moment and point you in the direction of a few other places of note: Powell's cool author blog (don't even get me started on their cool new line of author baseball cards), Prairie Light's Aesthetic Dept. t-shirt (of which I am a proud owner), and a reprise on Jancee Dunn's site, now that her book is due out next week.

Enjoy the weekend and beware of any friend of a friend of a friend who's in charge of fireworks named Pinky. (I met one, and he's missing his. Oh yeah, he should be in charge.)

Judge a book by its lover

Tom Cambell of Regulator in Durham emailed the following to me, and my reaction was that word-of-mouth can be phrased as Judging a book by its lover. “Came back to the store last evening for the inaugural meeting of an in-store book group. At one point, for some reason, the leader of the group asked the folks how they decided what books to read. No less than 3 out of about 15 folks said they simply got recommendations from sources they had come to trust, and that was all they needed and wanted.”

Still, the job I really want is naming the 'staff' on Car Talk. Their latest best one? Their resident humorist: Odessa Goodone.

Horse Sense

I predict good things for a wonderful book just out from Soho Press.

As you’ll see at some of the store sites below, it’s received great quotes, notably from Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation. Author Susan Richards is on the road to read and sign in Northeast bookstores; turn out and support her, or just buy the back soonest! ( I missed posting this in time for the event last night at Food for Thought in Amherst, but here’s the rest for this week. I’ll post the June signings next week.)

May 24 7pm Feed Your Head Books

May 25 12pm Edwards

May 25 7pm Books on the Square

Mona Lisa

So they found a painting of Mona's sister or an early study. Nice timing. I do have to say that I loved Da Vinci Code the book and get annoyed by those who turn their nose up. No, it is not literature; it's ice cream. Dan Brown sets all the hooks and you know he's doing that and it's fine to enjoy the ride. Really; it is.

Having said that, this bit of satire is quite funny and Onionesque.

Calming voice

I love Bob Schiefer. He's unself-consciously aw shucks and humble. He knows he's not the star of the show, and now he knows Katie's coming in September. If I can get home by 6:30, I just like winding down to his voice and manner. And he won me over all over again with his closing comment last night. After a bit about various commencement speeches, he said: "All I was thinking that day was getting my C in Spanish so I could graduate." That hit home! (Luckily for me, after 6 years of major hopping, I did barely graduate, and got the dream job for a dilettante: life in a bookstore.