Good day bookies! Just a quick comment on the latest nonsense from ebay.
*** So ebay is, once again, changing the rules of their game. Are they finally giving their hard-pressed sellers a break and letting buyers share some of the responsibility for a sale? Nope. They are, yet again, bashing their sellers over the head and stomping on their toes. Buyers who want to scam sellers have a virtual license to do so from ebay.
I stopped selling there in April, 2008, and boy has life been sweet ever since. (Except for all the parts that aren't so sweet, that is) And even though I left with 100% positive feedback and before they began whacking small sellers in the face with a shovel, I still had some problems with deadbeat buyers. I can only imagine the nightmare it must be today. In essence, a buyer can hold a seller hostage. Once an item is received, all the buyer has to do is claim that it is not as described, and the burden of proof falls on the seller to prove that it is an described. How does one do that, exactly? Well, one doesn't. Thus the problem. Or a buyer might claim that an item did not arrive. ebay and Paypal will always side with the buyer, regardless of what evidence is presented, at least according to every forum and message board that your friendly neighborhood bookseller frequents, which is quite a few.
It should be remembered that ebay does not want you to sell your homemade candles there anymore, or your one-of-a-kind embroidered shawl, or that rare book that never comes up for sale. They are doing everything they can to make small sellers leave, because small sellers are too...well, small. ebay doesn't want interesting, quirky items on the site anymore. They want homogenization, they want sameness and blandness, they don't want 'neat.'
Here's a link to their announcement of all the new rules.
Sticking it to sellers, reprise
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Just one of those Sundays
Good day bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
Okay, first, I know that I said this blog would be more frequent now that personal stuff was out of the way, but that was premature. More personal stuff came up. Sorry about that. I'll do my best, but ailing relatives need attention and I'm the only one who can give it.
*** The list of authors for The Southern Festival of Books is finally out, and the first name on the list is the most exciting. Buzz Aldrin will be there. That's right, the original Moonwalker will be on hand to sign autographs and hold a seminar. Not sure what the agenda will be yet but I'm sure it will be special. Your friendly neighborhood bookseller might be there this year.
Authors scheduled for the Southern Festival of Books
*** A round-up of book reviews, starting with three Texas mysteries including the new one from David Morrell.
Texas Times Three
*** Sometimes, the causes of the politically correct are so convoluted that it's hard to disentangle where one perceived insult stops and another one starts. Such is the case with a new book on the diaspora of the Jewish intelligentsia from Germany during the time of the Third Reich. Flight From the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946 by Deborah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt does not sound like the sort of books that Jewish scholars would get all mad about, does it? Except that those involved in the Holocaust, either as survivors or their families, or as scholars, want that piece of history all to themselves. The authors of Flight recall that at a presentation they were once asked "what does the history of Jewish refugees have to do with the Holocaust?"
Since when is victimization by the Nazis a zero sum game? Are those who were able to flee before becoming caught up in the Nazi death machinery somehow unworthy of being included in its victims? It's very strange.
This book does, however, appear to be a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on one major cause of Germany's failure in World War II, namely, its brain drain. It has long been one of my beliefs that aside from the Holocaust's insanity, in and of itself, on sheer practical terms the loss of all of that technical expertise in fields the Nazis found themselves critically short of once war came, everything from nuclear science to factory management, was deadly stupidity.
The Jewish diaspora from Nazi Germany
*** And so Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, has died from cancer. I never had the chance to meet Mr. McCourt, but by all accounts he was a fine man and I'm sorry that he's gone.
*** As something of a companion volume to the above comes another new book about why Hitler lost the war, contained in a one volume history. One of the recurring themes is that Hitler lost the war because he put Nazi rhetoric into practice, something I have believed for a long while now, so I may read this one myself. The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War. By Andrew Roberts. Allen Lane: 712 pages. 25 pounds. (Yikes!) To be published in the US by HarperCollins in 2011.
This seems to be a trend among historians, focusing on the economic causes of the war and their impact on the battlefield. This is all to the good, if the historian is good enough to make it interesting.
Hitler lost because he was Hitler
*** In addition to the above link, another reviewer weighs in with what they felt was new about the book, the rather old discovery that the German Wehrmacht was ill-prepared for winter war in Russia in 1941. Apparently Roberts' one-volume history is interesting enough to excite the reviewers, which is good. But come on, writing a whole article about the Germans shivering in the snows of Russia?
No.
Really?
Who knew? Or, rather, who didn't know? Frankly, I expect better than this from the Telegraph.
Another look at Roberts' new book.
*** And now, because the fascination with Nazism and Hitler seems matched only by the revulsion for same, there is yet another book another yet another lower level Nazi functionary that uses the premise to bash both the UK and the USA for their post-war use of former enemies to stave off future enemies.
Hunting Evil by Guy Walters is about Nazis used by MI6 and the CIA just after World War II at the beginning of the Cold War. The author is outraged that this happened. Which is understandable. But he wrote this article in English, not in Russian, so it isn't all bad. And it's not like the Russians didn't also use former Nazis that fell into their hands against the West.
If there's one thing I hate, really despise, it's second-guessing decades after the event has occurred. Unless, of course, it's me that's doing it.
More Nazis used by the West
Okay, first, I know that I said this blog would be more frequent now that personal stuff was out of the way, but that was premature. More personal stuff came up. Sorry about that. I'll do my best, but ailing relatives need attention and I'm the only one who can give it.
*** The list of authors for The Southern Festival of Books is finally out, and the first name on the list is the most exciting. Buzz Aldrin will be there. That's right, the original Moonwalker will be on hand to sign autographs and hold a seminar. Not sure what the agenda will be yet but I'm sure it will be special. Your friendly neighborhood bookseller might be there this year.
Authors scheduled for the Southern Festival of Books
*** A round-up of book reviews, starting with three Texas mysteries including the new one from David Morrell.
Texas Times Three
*** Sometimes, the causes of the politically correct are so convoluted that it's hard to disentangle where one perceived insult stops and another one starts. Such is the case with a new book on the diaspora of the Jewish intelligentsia from Germany during the time of the Third Reich. Flight From the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946 by Deborah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt does not sound like the sort of books that Jewish scholars would get all mad about, does it? Except that those involved in the Holocaust, either as survivors or their families, or as scholars, want that piece of history all to themselves. The authors of Flight recall that at a presentation they were once asked "what does the history of Jewish refugees have to do with the Holocaust?"
Since when is victimization by the Nazis a zero sum game? Are those who were able to flee before becoming caught up in the Nazi death machinery somehow unworthy of being included in its victims? It's very strange.
This book does, however, appear to be a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on one major cause of Germany's failure in World War II, namely, its brain drain. It has long been one of my beliefs that aside from the Holocaust's insanity, in and of itself, on sheer practical terms the loss of all of that technical expertise in fields the Nazis found themselves critically short of once war came, everything from nuclear science to factory management, was deadly stupidity.
The Jewish diaspora from Nazi Germany
*** And so Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, has died from cancer. I never had the chance to meet Mr. McCourt, but by all accounts he was a fine man and I'm sorry that he's gone.
*** As something of a companion volume to the above comes another new book about why Hitler lost the war, contained in a one volume history. One of the recurring themes is that Hitler lost the war because he put Nazi rhetoric into practice, something I have believed for a long while now, so I may read this one myself. The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War. By Andrew Roberts. Allen Lane: 712 pages. 25 pounds. (Yikes!) To be published in the US by HarperCollins in 2011.
This seems to be a trend among historians, focusing on the economic causes of the war and their impact on the battlefield. This is all to the good, if the historian is good enough to make it interesting.
Hitler lost because he was Hitler
*** In addition to the above link, another reviewer weighs in with what they felt was new about the book, the rather old discovery that the German Wehrmacht was ill-prepared for winter war in Russia in 1941. Apparently Roberts' one-volume history is interesting enough to excite the reviewers, which is good. But come on, writing a whole article about the Germans shivering in the snows of Russia?
No.
Really?
Who knew? Or, rather, who didn't know? Frankly, I expect better than this from the Telegraph.
Another look at Roberts' new book.
*** And now, because the fascination with Nazism and Hitler seems matched only by the revulsion for same, there is yet another book another yet another lower level Nazi functionary that uses the premise to bash both the UK and the USA for their post-war use of former enemies to stave off future enemies.
Hunting Evil by Guy Walters is about Nazis used by MI6 and the CIA just after World War II at the beginning of the Cold War. The author is outraged that this happened. Which is understandable. But he wrote this article in English, not in Russian, so it isn't all bad. And it's not like the Russians didn't also use former Nazis that fell into their hands against the West.
If there's one thing I hate, really despise, it's second-guessing decades after the event has occurred. Unless, of course, it's me that's doing it.
More Nazis used by the West
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Wizard Children of Finn by Mary Tannen
The Wizard Children of Finn by Mary Tannen. Knopf, 1981. The first edition statement is the standard Knopf. Quarter cloth in purple, green paper boards. Cover price is $8.95. Author's photo appears on the rear inside fold. All in all a fairly standard offering from Knopf of thie period, probably a little more attention to detail than most of its kind in this pre-Harry Potter ear when YA fantasies were not taken seriously.Quite scarce in the early 21st century. The paper is of a medium weight stock but is fairly high acid. Toning would be common with this book.
Mid July and it's not hot
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
The highs in Memphis this weekend will be in the mid 80's. That's right, about 10 degrees below normal for July. This great weather is scary.
***Ted Kennedy's auto-biography, co-written with the co-author of Flags of Our Fathers Rom Powers, has been slated for a companion deluxe edition to accompany the trade edition. True Compass will have a 1,000 copy print run bound in leather and selling for $1k a pop. That's one way to quickly get back 1/8th of the reported $8 million advance. The special edition will be 'electronically signed', which sounds to me like a euphemism for an auto-pen signature, the sort of autograph that is worthless to collectors. Michael Crichton did this with the deluxe edition of The Lost World, but his only sold for about $35.
So, forgive me for being cynical, but this sounds like one of those books that political cronies and wealthy friends will buy and stick on a shelf as an obligation, a rather back-handed way to funnel money to the publisher to thank them for funneling money Teddy's way. And if I sounds irritated, it's because I am. How many worthy authors are out there trying to sell exciting and important books to cash-strapped publishers who insist on pumping out mega-numbers of this sort of twaddle? Does they actually expect to sell anything approaching half of the 1.5 million initial print run from this book? Good grief, I'll be surprised if they sell even a third of them. Meanwhile we will continue to read how the economy is killing book sales. Maybe if publisher's paid more attention to selling good books and less to selling bloated and self-serving political monuments their bottom line might look a little better.
Of course, no matter how bad this book might turn out to be, no matter how self-serving Teddy's cathartic ramblings are, they cannot possibly wind up being the worst book published this summer.
Not with the sequel to The Da Vinci Code coming.
Kennedy's book
*** We aren't that far from the 2009 Southern Festival of Books, which takes place in Nashville the second weekend of October. I have held off commenting because it would be nice to put up a link to this year's lineup of authors, which is scheduled to be published on July 1. It never is, of course, it's usually around the 10th, so that's why I haven't said anything before this. But come on, people, today is the 15th and the Festival is less than three months away! If someone from out of town wants to attend, but is waiting to see the lineup first (in other words, me), do you have to wait until almost the last second to give us a heads up? If I do attend there are lots of details to get set up and you are making this very difficult.
Having said that, the Festival is a bunch of fun, there are always too many authors to possibly meet them all and the biggest danger is overspending on books. In other words, if you're reading this blog then it's the kind of event that would set your hair on fire.
*** I realize that we are all used to idiotic ideas coming out of Washington, but it appears that stupidity no longer knows any restraint, as some moronic Democrat think tank proposes giving every student in America that hell-spawned device known as a Kindle. That's right, spending tax money on one of the nastiest inventions of the last hundred years, as we all wallow in a recession. This is further proof that if you want to write a novel more outrageous than reality, the bar is set very high. The good news is that it seems unlikely to happen, but for people just to consider this shows how far we have fallen as a civilization.
One of the worst ideas in the history of Man
*** I see where George Carlin's biography is due for release in November. Carlin was an American original and I can only imagine the stories he had to tell, which it appears he put down in Last Words.
George Carlin has his final say
*** I note with sadness that the founder of SFF's seminal magazine on the industry, Locus, the innovative editor Charles N. Brown, died July 12. Behind me as I write this are boxes filled with decades worth of Locus issues, if you wanted to work in the SFF field, or keep up with it or just read some great reviews and interviews, that was/is your magazine of choice.
RIP Charles N. Brown
The highs in Memphis this weekend will be in the mid 80's. That's right, about 10 degrees below normal for July. This great weather is scary.
***Ted Kennedy's auto-biography, co-written with the co-author of Flags of Our Fathers Rom Powers, has been slated for a companion deluxe edition to accompany the trade edition. True Compass will have a 1,000 copy print run bound in leather and selling for $1k a pop. That's one way to quickly get back 1/8th of the reported $8 million advance. The special edition will be 'electronically signed', which sounds to me like a euphemism for an auto-pen signature, the sort of autograph that is worthless to collectors. Michael Crichton did this with the deluxe edition of The Lost World, but his only sold for about $35.
So, forgive me for being cynical, but this sounds like one of those books that political cronies and wealthy friends will buy and stick on a shelf as an obligation, a rather back-handed way to funnel money to the publisher to thank them for funneling money Teddy's way. And if I sounds irritated, it's because I am. How many worthy authors are out there trying to sell exciting and important books to cash-strapped publishers who insist on pumping out mega-numbers of this sort of twaddle? Does they actually expect to sell anything approaching half of the 1.5 million initial print run from this book? Good grief, I'll be surprised if they sell even a third of them. Meanwhile we will continue to read how the economy is killing book sales. Maybe if publisher's paid more attention to selling good books and less to selling bloated and self-serving political monuments their bottom line might look a little better.
Of course, no matter how bad this book might turn out to be, no matter how self-serving Teddy's cathartic ramblings are, they cannot possibly wind up being the worst book published this summer.
Not with the sequel to The Da Vinci Code coming.
Kennedy's book
*** We aren't that far from the 2009 Southern Festival of Books, which takes place in Nashville the second weekend of October. I have held off commenting because it would be nice to put up a link to this year's lineup of authors, which is scheduled to be published on July 1. It never is, of course, it's usually around the 10th, so that's why I haven't said anything before this. But come on, people, today is the 15th and the Festival is less than three months away! If someone from out of town wants to attend, but is waiting to see the lineup first (in other words, me), do you have to wait until almost the last second to give us a heads up? If I do attend there are lots of details to get set up and you are making this very difficult.
Having said that, the Festival is a bunch of fun, there are always too many authors to possibly meet them all and the biggest danger is overspending on books. In other words, if you're reading this blog then it's the kind of event that would set your hair on fire.
*** I realize that we are all used to idiotic ideas coming out of Washington, but it appears that stupidity no longer knows any restraint, as some moronic Democrat think tank proposes giving every student in America that hell-spawned device known as a Kindle. That's right, spending tax money on one of the nastiest inventions of the last hundred years, as we all wallow in a recession. This is further proof that if you want to write a novel more outrageous than reality, the bar is set very high. The good news is that it seems unlikely to happen, but for people just to consider this shows how far we have fallen as a civilization.
One of the worst ideas in the history of Man
*** I see where George Carlin's biography is due for release in November. Carlin was an American original and I can only imagine the stories he had to tell, which it appears he put down in Last Words.
George Carlin has his final say
*** I note with sadness that the founder of SFF's seminal magazine on the industry, Locus, the innovative editor Charles N. Brown, died July 12. Behind me as I write this are boxes filled with decades worth of Locus issues, if you wanted to work in the SFF field, or keep up with it or just read some great reviews and interviews, that was/is your magazine of choice.
RIP Charles N. Brown
Friday, July 10, 2009
Hot, wet and silly
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
It's hot in Memphis. This is news? It's also humid in Memphis. Duh, right? Not necessarily. People in hot climates aren't always exposed to the wet heat we get here on the banks of the Mississippi. For example, yesterday's heat index was 11 degrees higher than the actual air temperature. If was 94 degrees but felt like 106. And since your friendly neighborhood bookseller cut his backyard yesterday, he can assure you that it did, indeed, feel like every degree of 106. So if you're in a place with dry heat, enjoy. As for me, I like it this way.
*** I've gotta give props to a fellow model/World War II buff out there, and maybe throw some business his way while I'm at it, for a nice new book review on a subject that interests me greatly. The Essential Vehicle Identification Guide: Soviet Tank Units 1939-1945 by David Porter, is a companion volume to Amber's other such Guide, most notably Chris Bishop's book on German units, which I have read cover to cover. You don't usually find such well organized and insightful books on such esoteric topics, so I don't mind giving such free coverage to such a well run website.
I would also find this book useful in my newly forming ideas about a return to the modeling world, this time with tanks and armored vehicles. So read the review and let the guy know if you liked it. And let him know where you heard about it, too.
A rare but insightful review of an obscure but interesting book on Soviet tanks in WW2
*** Errol Flynn as a Nazi spy? That's right, a new biographer wants us to believe that the perennial bad-boy swashbuckler really craved Nazism and wanted to see Hitler take over America. And while I have no particular evidence to refute this seemingly outlandish claim, my natural skepticism at such wild accusations seems quite well placed here. I mean, after all, if you want to sell books, what better way than to accuse someone of being a Nazi? The linked article says that the author used de-classified CIA files in his research. Except, the CIA wasn't established until long after World War II. Does he mean that the CIA's forerunner, the OSS, kept files? Hardly seems likely, given that they were more focused on external security threats. Or were these FBI files, or did the CIA start files on Flynn after the war?
Sounds like utter twaddle to me. What's next, Flynn sword-fighting with Churchill? Flynn meeting with aliens? Of course, I haven't read the book so this is just curmudgeonly ranting, but that's what I do best.
Errol Flynn as a Nazi?
*** Of course, the Nazis weren't the only ones recruiting Western superstars as spies. The Soviets wanted in on the action, too, and they picked Ernest Hemingway. That's right, a new biography alleges that Papa was a KGB agent. And while this, too, seems a bit far-fetched, the USSR by and large received better press here in the states than Nazi Germany ever did. It would not be impossible to think that Hemingway flirted with communism, given that so many other Americans did the same thing.
Still, Flynn was a Nazi and Hemingway a commie? Good thing they were never alone in a room together.
Papa Hemingway and the Hammer and Sickle
*** Word from my sources in Hollywood is that Roman Polanski is signing off on the project to bring Robert Harris' novel Pompeii to the big screen. The early talk was $130 million to film the book, which is set before during and after the Vesuvius buried the small Roman city and gave us our best preserved site for life during the Early Empire period. Having been there, I can only say that Pompeii the city inspires awe. Pompeii, the movie, might have done the same thing. And might still. Who knows? One can only hope.
It's hot in Memphis. This is news? It's also humid in Memphis. Duh, right? Not necessarily. People in hot climates aren't always exposed to the wet heat we get here on the banks of the Mississippi. For example, yesterday's heat index was 11 degrees higher than the actual air temperature. If was 94 degrees but felt like 106. And since your friendly neighborhood bookseller cut his backyard yesterday, he can assure you that it did, indeed, feel like every degree of 106. So if you're in a place with dry heat, enjoy. As for me, I like it this way.
*** I've gotta give props to a fellow model/World War II buff out there, and maybe throw some business his way while I'm at it, for a nice new book review on a subject that interests me greatly. The Essential Vehicle Identification Guide: Soviet Tank Units 1939-1945 by David Porter, is a companion volume to Amber's other such Guide, most notably Chris Bishop's book on German units, which I have read cover to cover. You don't usually find such well organized and insightful books on such esoteric topics, so I don't mind giving such free coverage to such a well run website.
I would also find this book useful in my newly forming ideas about a return to the modeling world, this time with tanks and armored vehicles. So read the review and let the guy know if you liked it. And let him know where you heard about it, too.
A rare but insightful review of an obscure but interesting book on Soviet tanks in WW2
*** Errol Flynn as a Nazi spy? That's right, a new biographer wants us to believe that the perennial bad-boy swashbuckler really craved Nazism and wanted to see Hitler take over America. And while I have no particular evidence to refute this seemingly outlandish claim, my natural skepticism at such wild accusations seems quite well placed here. I mean, after all, if you want to sell books, what better way than to accuse someone of being a Nazi? The linked article says that the author used de-classified CIA files in his research. Except, the CIA wasn't established until long after World War II. Does he mean that the CIA's forerunner, the OSS, kept files? Hardly seems likely, given that they were more focused on external security threats. Or were these FBI files, or did the CIA start files on Flynn after the war?
Sounds like utter twaddle to me. What's next, Flynn sword-fighting with Churchill? Flynn meeting with aliens? Of course, I haven't read the book so this is just curmudgeonly ranting, but that's what I do best.
Errol Flynn as a Nazi?
*** Of course, the Nazis weren't the only ones recruiting Western superstars as spies. The Soviets wanted in on the action, too, and they picked Ernest Hemingway. That's right, a new biography alleges that Papa was a KGB agent. And while this, too, seems a bit far-fetched, the USSR by and large received better press here in the states than Nazi Germany ever did. It would not be impossible to think that Hemingway flirted with communism, given that so many other Americans did the same thing.
Still, Flynn was a Nazi and Hemingway a commie? Good thing they were never alone in a room together.
Papa Hemingway and the Hammer and Sickle
*** Word from my sources in Hollywood is that Roman Polanski is signing off on the project to bring Robert Harris' novel Pompeii to the big screen. The early talk was $130 million to film the book, which is set before during and after the Vesuvius buried the small Roman city and gave us our best preserved site for life during the Early Empire period. Having been there, I can only say that Pompeii the city inspires awe. Pompeii, the movie, might have done the same thing. And might still. Who knows? One can only hope.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
The 4th, a day late
Happy 4th of July weekend, bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
*** The newest issue of iloveamysterynewsletter is posted, with one review by yours truly of the sequel to Child 44, titled The Secret Speech. And right here and now this author wishes to apologize to his long-suffering editor for not turning in the second review he was supposed to write. Sometimes life just has other ideas.
iloveamysternewsletter
*** So, for all you Catcher in the Rye junkies out there (you know who you are), you may breathe easy again. There will be no sequel as a US District Judge has banned Swedish writer Frederik Colting's 'commentary' 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. So now you can't read it and decide if it's a cheap ripoff or an on-point commentary. Unless, of course, you buy the UK version, which has already been published.
Swede tries to cash in on Salinger's masterpiece
*** What's selling in the UK? Not much, it appears. Maybe the most encouraging part is seeing that James Patterson's sales are down by half, although it's unlikely this means that the buying public has suddenly discovered better taste in their literature. Instead, it seems that book sales overall are down and Patterson, while way down, is still leading the pack. Beats me why people spend good money for his stuff, except when I remember PT Barnum, who was more right than even he knew.
** In reading the Top 10 Chart for UK book sales for the week of June 27th, I was struck that Stephanie Meyer's vampire books hold down the first 4 spots in the Children's category...huh? Twilight, et al, are kids' books? Wow, who knew? You curl up to read your 4 year old daughter a bedtime story with vampires and sex, instead of the Berenstain Bears or Beatrix Potter. The world has really changed that much, has it?
*** Your friendly neighborhood bookseller is a lifelong baseball fan. Not only watching it, but in my late 30's I signed up to play adult baseball, and to this day have the foot pain that comes with stretched ligaments in my right foot, the result of stepping in a hole while running down a flyball in right field. What a hole was doing in a baseball outfield is a good question, and why I didn't sue the city of Bartlett, TN., for not maintaining their field properly is...but I digress.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a nice article on five new baseball books out this year. Nice gift ideas for the baseball fan in your life.
Five baseball gems to choose from
*** There is a deluge of Michael Jackson books coming. As always, you can expect your friendly neighborhood bookseller to read through them all and sort the wheat from the chaff.
Okay, you can't possibly believe that last sentence. Here's one you can believe: BBG will do his best to ignore them all.
*** The newest issue of iloveamysterynewsletter is posted, with one review by yours truly of the sequel to Child 44, titled The Secret Speech. And right here and now this author wishes to apologize to his long-suffering editor for not turning in the second review he was supposed to write. Sometimes life just has other ideas.
iloveamysternewsletter
*** So, for all you Catcher in the Rye junkies out there (you know who you are), you may breathe easy again. There will be no sequel as a US District Judge has banned Swedish writer Frederik Colting's 'commentary' 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. So now you can't read it and decide if it's a cheap ripoff or an on-point commentary. Unless, of course, you buy the UK version, which has already been published.
Swede tries to cash in on Salinger's masterpiece
*** What's selling in the UK? Not much, it appears. Maybe the most encouraging part is seeing that James Patterson's sales are down by half, although it's unlikely this means that the buying public has suddenly discovered better taste in their literature. Instead, it seems that book sales overall are down and Patterson, while way down, is still leading the pack. Beats me why people spend good money for his stuff, except when I remember PT Barnum, who was more right than even he knew.
** In reading the Top 10 Chart for UK book sales for the week of June 27th, I was struck that Stephanie Meyer's vampire books hold down the first 4 spots in the Children's category...huh? Twilight, et al, are kids' books? Wow, who knew? You curl up to read your 4 year old daughter a bedtime story with vampires and sex, instead of the Berenstain Bears or Beatrix Potter. The world has really changed that much, has it?
*** Your friendly neighborhood bookseller is a lifelong baseball fan. Not only watching it, but in my late 30's I signed up to play adult baseball, and to this day have the foot pain that comes with stretched ligaments in my right foot, the result of stepping in a hole while running down a flyball in right field. What a hole was doing in a baseball outfield is a good question, and why I didn't sue the city of Bartlett, TN., for not maintaining their field properly is...but I digress.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a nice article on five new baseball books out this year. Nice gift ideas for the baseball fan in your life.
Five baseball gems to choose from
*** There is a deluge of Michael Jackson books coming. As always, you can expect your friendly neighborhood bookseller to read through them all and sort the wheat from the chaff.
Okay, you can't possibly believe that last sentence. Here's one you can believe: BBG will do his best to ignore them all.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
July 1st already?
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
The 4th of July is coming up soon, I hope you all have something delectable to read. How else would you celebrate American Independence than by reading whatever you want?
For those following the 2009 European Adventure Tour, the next segment is coming shortly.
*** Western writer Don Coldsmith has died. I am not familiar with his work, but in reading his obituary it was obvious that here was yet another writer I wish that I had time to read. His Spanish Bit books are about the Plains Indians in the time when the Spanish have just introduced the horse and how it changed their lives. No doubt I would love them. They sound like a great gift for someone who loves westerns and history.
The Passing of Don Coldsmith
*** The horrors of the Nazi camp system seem to encompass every aspect of human existence, including prostitution. In a new book to re released in Germany in July, The Concentration Camp Bordello: Sexual Forced Labor in National Socialistic Concentration Camps, Schonigh Verlag, author Robert Sommer has collected the most comprehensive data yet made available on the women who survived the camps by serving as prostitutes for both the soldiers and the inmates. He also explores the issue of whether or not these women were 'volunteers', a claim which has made it easier to overlook this crime.
One more horror in the long list of Nazi horrors
*** And, as if to prove that new books on World War II may be expected on an almost daily basis, there is a new one on FDR's efforts to help Britain during 1941, when she fought on alone against Germany after the Fall of France. To Keep the British Isles Afloat: FDR's Men in Churchill's London 1941 by Thomas Parrish, documents the efforts of FDR's two point men, Harry Hopkins and Averill Harriman, to simultaneously encourage England and rouse the USA to the dangers of Germany.
Since I haven't read this book the one caveat that I might have is if the author plays up the danger of a German attack on mainland America. If he does, then I lose interest, because that simply was not going to happen. However, I will assume that a recognized author such as Parrish will not make such a silly mistake.
FDR's fight to help England in 1941
The 4th of July is coming up soon, I hope you all have something delectable to read. How else would you celebrate American Independence than by reading whatever you want?
For those following the 2009 European Adventure Tour, the next segment is coming shortly.
*** Western writer Don Coldsmith has died. I am not familiar with his work, but in reading his obituary it was obvious that here was yet another writer I wish that I had time to read. His Spanish Bit books are about the Plains Indians in the time when the Spanish have just introduced the horse and how it changed their lives. No doubt I would love them. They sound like a great gift for someone who loves westerns and history.
The Passing of Don Coldsmith
*** The horrors of the Nazi camp system seem to encompass every aspect of human existence, including prostitution. In a new book to re released in Germany in July, The Concentration Camp Bordello: Sexual Forced Labor in National Socialistic Concentration Camps, Schonigh Verlag, author Robert Sommer has collected the most comprehensive data yet made available on the women who survived the camps by serving as prostitutes for both the soldiers and the inmates. He also explores the issue of whether or not these women were 'volunteers', a claim which has made it easier to overlook this crime.
One more horror in the long list of Nazi horrors
*** And, as if to prove that new books on World War II may be expected on an almost daily basis, there is a new one on FDR's efforts to help Britain during 1941, when she fought on alone against Germany after the Fall of France. To Keep the British Isles Afloat: FDR's Men in Churchill's London 1941 by Thomas Parrish, documents the efforts of FDR's two point men, Harry Hopkins and Averill Harriman, to simultaneously encourage England and rouse the USA to the dangers of Germany.
Since I haven't read this book the one caveat that I might have is if the author plays up the danger of a German attack on mainland America. If he does, then I lose interest, because that simply was not going to happen. However, I will assume that a recognized author such as Parrish will not make such a silly mistake.
FDR's fight to help England in 1941
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