So Much To Be Said...Agree, or Not?

I spent a couple of days hunting down a cogent summary of this deplorable trend, but here you go, for a weekend read. From Art Winslow on the blog site "The Huffington Post."

In the new book burning we don't burn books, we burn discussion of them instead. I am referring to the ongoing collapse of book review sections at American newspapers, which has accelerated in recent months, an intellectual brownout in progress that is beginning to look like a rolling blackout instead... read the rest of this post and please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below

Warriors Phenomenon Keeps Building

Today is a banner day for author Erin Hunter as she launches the third six-book series in her incredibly successful Warriors series. Today is the release date for The Sight, book one in her Power of Three series.

Actually, Erin Hunter is the pen name of two English writers, Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry, and if you have a child anywhere between the ages of 8 and 18, they have surely read one or more of the previous 12 books. Around here, it's one of those series that we have a standing order for each new release. We try to keep all of the titles on hand, too, so that as children reach a certain age they can begin the adventure at the beginning.

Those of you who pre-ordered will have already been called about the new book, but you may be unaware that HarperCollins Children's Books has extended the brand even further into manga...that's the Asian-influenced graphic novel style with all original stories, and book one of a planned three-book series also comes out today: The Lost Warrior.

If you're still puzzled about the whole Warriors phenomenon, just ask the child in your life, or read the annotation below:

There will be three, kin of your kin . . .

The wild cats have flourished in their new home on the banks of the lake for several seasons, and the Clans are growing strong and healthy with new kits. The time has come for three kits of ThunderClan to become apprentices.

Hollypaw, Jaypaw, and Lionpaw spring from a strong legacy: children of Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw, two of the noblest ThunderClan warriors, and grandchildren of the great leader Firestar himself. All three young cats possess unusual power and talent and seem certain to provide strength to the Clan for the next generation.

But there are dark secrets around the three, and a mysterious prophecy hints at trouble to come. An undercurrent of rage is rising against those who are not Clanborn, and the warrior code is in danger of being washed away by a river of blood. All the young cats' strength will be needed if the Clans are to survive.

. . . who hold the power of the stars in their paws.

From the "Internets"

I can't always devote the time to entertaining original content here, but that's no reason you shouldn't get new content on a (near) daily basis. Saturdays are an office work day for me, thanks to Ann, but we both listen avidly to Michael Feldman's What Do You Know? on WFPL 89.3 FM, the NPR station.

Not the least of the reasons for listening is Feldman's attention to writers and writing. Today's guest was the coauthor of Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home, David Shipley and Will Schwalbe.

Check out Feldman's blog at http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/author/mfeldman

All Harry, All the Time?

Sooner than you can imagine, you won't be able to turn your head without hearing about J.K. Rowling's mammoth conclusion to Harry Potter's school days, Year 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We're going to embrace the madness ourselves, and it has begun.

Your independent booksellers will be offering a sweepstakes to win a trip to London as part of our Independent Muggles for Harry Potter promotion.

Scholastic, Rowling's U.S. publisher, is offering special Book Sense collectible bookmarks and we have them (on request). Each of seven bookmarks lists a key question leading up to the gala release at midnight on July 21, 2007. The first is out - bookmark #2 is available on May 1. Come by and ask for your collectible bookmark while supplies last. And then during Harry Potter weekend, you can enter the sweepstakes.

Author Spotlight: Michael Pollan

I'm deferring our young readers spotlight to next Tuesday, when I'll be privileged to be one of the readers at Mt. Tabor Elementary School. It was a delightful experience last year, and I look forward to it.

Here's an author you'll want to get familiar with - Michael Pollan. His current rousing bestseller is The Omnivore's Dilemma, but he's been a prolific writer for about a decade. What's most intriguing about Pollan is his choice of topics.

A Place of My Own is the writer's reflections on the meaning and building of "home," as drawn from his experience in building a wooden hut in the woods near his Connecticut home. At first blush, you might suspect it to be dry, but just a few minutes reading will make you a fan. Each tangent reveals a fertile mind, and the narrative essays draw you inexorably toward the author's central theses.

The Botany of Desire is even more unlikely, but even more enjoyable. The book is categorized as "human plant relationships," an incongruous connection, but it works. He uses botany to explore four basic human desires - sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control -through portraits of four plants that embody them: the apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato.

We carry all three. Check them out.

What I'm reading: Breaking Open Japan: Commodore Perry, Lord Abe & American Imperialism in 1853 by George Feifer

We're Baaack!

It is amazing how debilitating this Ohio River Valley crud can be. Sorry to be "off the air" for so long, but we're back, if only slightly.

This week the Pulitzer Prize committee awarded its 2007 honors. The awards were endowed by Joseph Pulitzer after his death to honor excellence in journalism, literary arts, and music. The prizes are administered by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road is the winner for fiction this year. Debby Applegate garnered the prize for biography with The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. The award for general nonfiction was given to Lawrence Wright for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. We have all of these titles in stock now.

The prize for history was nabbed by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff for The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggles, and the Awakening of a Nation. The poetry prize went to Natasha Trethewey for Native Guard.

Interestingly, one publisher pulled down three of the more prestigious prizes. The Alfred A. Knopf imprint published McCarthy, Wright, and Roberts/Klibanoff.

What I'm reading: Breaking Open Japan: Commodore Perry, Lord Abe & American Imperialism in 1853, by George Feifer.

Earth Day for Kids

Today we're going to take a look at some children's books just right for Earth Day. As we mentioned earlier this week, Earth Day is a global celebration that was the brainchild of Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. A horrific oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. prompted Nelson to initiate this day of appreciation for our natural world. First celebrated on April 22, 1970, more than 20 million people participated.

Today, over 500 million people worldwide honor the day, and Sunday, April 22, 2007 is the official celebration this year. In Southern Indiana, we celebrate a week early at the Falls of the Ohio State Park, primarily because Louisville's earth-hostile Thunder Over Louisville preempts the waterfront on the relevant weekend.



I Love Our Earth is a photo book in rhyme, created by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson, with photographs by Dan Lipow. Its sing-song story truly celebrates our Earth with vibrant pictures, many including children at play in nature. It's from Charlesbridge Publishing.



Kathy Ross and Sharon Lane Holm bring us All New Crafts for Earth Day. Using simple materials ready to hand, this book offers easy craft projects for kids at home or in churches, schools, or day care centers.



The Great Trash Bash is a delight. Mayor Hippo is puzzled. He seems to be doing everything right. But something is wrong. He talks to citizens everywhere he goes, and soon he learns that the people of Beaston are their own worst enemies, discarding instead of recycling, littering instead of keeping the city clean, and polluting rather than conserving. He brings the animal residents of the town together to rid the town of trash, making Beaston once again a beautiful place. At the end of the book is a list of ideas for kids to remember to keep their own towns clean. Loreen Leedy is the author.

Join local authors and earthlovers this Saturday at The Falls, all day.

Quirky Stuff

I'll wager that practically none of you have ever heard of Edward Abbey. Born in 1927, Abbey may well have been the original "green warrior." This iconoclastic writer modeled his productive output on the work of Thomas Paine, and was probably as much a burr in the saddle to the establishment in his day as Paine was in his. His best known works were Desert Solitaire (a nonfiction paean to the glories of the desert, written after he spent a year as a volunteer ranger in the Arches National Monument) and The Monkey-Wrench Gang (the fictional story of a group of friends who disrupt "economic development" industrial projects in the name of the ecology).

One of Abbey's quirks was to afflict the comfortable via postcard. Ann, who like me didn't know of Abbey, was struck by the messages he left from the grave in the recent release, Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast, edited by David Petersen and published by Milkweed Editions. The book is variously described as "insanely readable," and "sometimes nutty, sometimes dead-on." One of my personal heroes, Wendell Berry, contributed this: "I read him for consolation, for the comfort of being told the truth."

Rather than "sell" you on the book, let me just share on piece, short on the page, but long on a blog.

James Morgan, Articles Editor
Playboy Magazine, Chicago (2 January 1984)
Dear Mr. Morgan:

Thank you for the Christmas card. Of course I would like to write something for Playboy again, if we can agree on a topic.

At the moment I'm on page 901 of another novel, this one a sort of picaresque Rablaisian Appalachian hillbilly family saga farce and tragedy. If your fiction editor would like to tak a look, I'll type up a chapter or two of it and send it along. Ask him/her to give me guidelines as to maximum length.

But I'm also interested in doing essays and journalism, altho' not in the field of environmental issues; I am still very much an eco-freak and wild preservationist but I have had nothing new to say on the subject for years. General travel is more my line now (see my Alaska piece in the March Outside, or my next book, Beyond the Wall, also due in March or April), and social and literary commentary.

E.g., I've been making notes lately for an essay on the subject "Great Living Bores," or "The Great American Bores" or some such title. [REMEMBER THIS WAS 1984 - R.S.] My initial nominees for the list would be such folk as Jackie K Onassis, Henry Kissinger, Normal [sic] Mailer, William F Buckley and George F Will (because of their push-button opinions on any conceivable subject), perhaps Muhammad Ali (tho' he seems to be fading fast; should have thought of this several years ago), John Updike (for the rabbit story), maybe Ted Kennedy, maybe Susan "Creamcheese" Sontag (what she really wanted was to grow up to be a Frenchman), John Travolta certainly and other hack show bix types, Jesse Jackson and Walter Mondale, I'm sure, will be boring us silly in the months to come, the whole line-up of the Baltimore Orioles, Bob Dylan (changing his religion every six months), James Michener, Jesse Helms, Yasser Arafat, Hugh Hefner (oops!), Pope JP II (often pictured out here in the SW as a "Pope-alope," with pronghorns), Buckminster Fuller (tho' recently deceased), Carlos Castaneda, Jerry Falwell, etc. etc. Perhaps the list is already too long.

In any case, my emphasis would be a discussion of the qualities and nature of a great public bore, as opposed to merely minor, personal and "scintillating" bores.

And then, I'm thinking of going to Abyssinia next November for an exploration of the Omoo River. I know you're not particularly interested in any more river trip journals but I'm sure I'd find much of interest in Ethiopia to write about along with hippos, crocodiles & cannibals & black Reds. If I go I may take a look at South Africa, too, and even try to get into SW Africa and the sporadic guerilla warfare said to be smoldering there.
I want to go to Australia one more time. Perhaps never to return. And if I ever finish this goddamn endless novel I plan to write a serious book about Mexico - The Smoking Volcano on our Border.

Say hello to Gonzo Gonzales for me. I've lost his address. I hear he's recently had published a novel about Mexico or something to do with the Mexican revolutionaries. Ask him to send me a copy, I want to read it, and if he does I'll send him a copy of my next book.

Sincerely, Edward Abbey - Oracle

I'm fascinated by each letter and postcard I've read. They are a mix of notes to editors, letters to the editors, governors and bureaucrats, and notes to literary luminaries of his day. I think you might enjoy it.

Postcards from Ed edited by David Petersen
ISBN 9781571312846 Milkweed Editions Sept. 2006 (Hardcover ) $24.95 296 pp.

What I'm reading: Land of Lincoln by Andrew Ferguson ISBN 9780781139672 June 2007

Earth IS in the Balance

We've watched with some envy the dramatic way our neighboring state has committed to the promotion of tourism and economic development. An outstanding way to boost your economy is to draw visitors from outside the state.

But the private sector does a fine job, too. James Bilodeau has compiled a compelling list of free attractions in the Bluegrass State and will be appearing to promote his book, Free Kentucky: Free things to see and do in the Bluegrass State, at Destinations Booksellers this Saturday, April 14, at 11 a.m.

Come by to hear Bilodeau discuss the book and the attractions in Kentucky to get this next spring weekend off to a rousing start. His publisher, Xavier House Publishing, will soon be releasing Free Tennessee and we can only hope they'll consider a Hoosier edition soon.

Then, travel from here to the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville for Southern Indiana's celebration of Earth Day. This celebration of all things healthy for our planet was the brainchild of Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. Did you know that our own Carnegie Center's Suellen Wilkinson was a good friend to Sen. Nelson and worked closely with him on Earth Day and other progressive causes?

The celebration at the Falls is a day-long event featuring earth-friendly techniques, products, and ideas you can use. Jamey Aebersold Jazz is subsidizing free admission to the interpretive center and will perform at mid-day. Great food and fun for the kids, too.

For the third straight year, Destinations Booksellers will be participating in the event. This year we've arranged for a corps of local authors to appear to discuss, sign, and sell their books. Please drop by the Destinations tent and show your support for local authors.

In addition, we have a special nature and ecology display set up at the store to commemorate Earth Day.

April is also National Poetry Month and with Easter finery now put away, our prime display is a selection of poetry that most of you have probably never seen.

Have a great week, a great Earth Day, and a great Poetry Month.

Beneath the Radar

Sometimes a book doesn't get its due, and sometimes it gets lost in the mass of information that flows, especially at Christmastime.

I just finished this book and can tell you it's a story I never knew before. From what I had known about Admiral Halsey, I admired him. My admiration is not lessened after reading this, but my empathy for our WWII naval personnel certainly increased.

I'm going to cheat a bit (I still don't have Internet at home) by using a general piece from the publisher to describe the book, but here's a piece of trivia. Admiral William Halsey was colloquially known as "Bull" - and his personality fit the moniker. But Halsey hated the name. He said he didn't want to acquire such a name simply because a drunken journalist type "u" instead of "i" in a dispatch, but the name, intended or not, stuck.

Halsey and his superior, Adm. Chester Nimitz, were both awarded a fifth star at the conclusion of the war, the first ever awarded.
In December 1944, America's most popular and colorful naval hero, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, unwittingly sailed his undefeated Pacific Fleet into the teeth of a powerful typhoon. Three destroyers were capsized, sending hundreds of sailors and officers into the raging, shark-infested waters. Over the next sixty hours, small bands of survivors fought seventy-foot waves, exhaustion, and dehydration to await rescue at the hands of the courageous Lt. Com. Henry Lee Plage, who, defying orders, sailed his tiny destroyer escort USS Tabberer through 150-mph winds to reach the lost men. Thanks to documents that have been declassified after sixty years and dozens of first-hand accounts from survivors--including former President Gerald Ford--one of the greatest World War II stories, and a riveting tale of survival at sea, can finally be told.

Halsey's Typhoon by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury
ISBN 9780871139481 November 2006 Atlantic Monthly Press (Hardcover) $25

Notes for Sunday, April 8, 2007

As you may know, Destinations Booksellers is a member of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, the regional trade association of brick-and-mortar independents from Texas to Florida to Virginia to...well, New Albany. We're the odd duck, allowed to join by waiver of the rules. There's little question that we are at the farthest edges of the South, but it made little sense to join in with Michigan stores when we're basically part of one of the South's biggest cities. The Great Lakes Booksellers Association is a fine one, but we don't share the same interests, really. Besides, I'm a Southern boy.

Of course, we do pay a price. Meetings are very far away - Orlando, Atlanta, Winston-Salem, Richmond - but then a trip to Dearborn, Grand Rapids, or Chicago can be just as onerous. And our Southern-influenced holiday catalogs can often have a few too many Charlotte/Miami/Mobile books for my own tastes.

Which is the long way around to introducing the following commentary from Nicki Leone, the Web site and marketing manager for SIBA.

A recent colleague posting on our listserv (bookseller forum, Yahoo group) asked for definitions of "literary fiction." I thought Nicki's response was well done and, with her kind permission, I'm sharing it with you.

When Bristol Books first helped create the Cape Fear Crime Festival, I became involved in alot of mystery discussion groups, and this topic would invariably arouse all sorts of ire. "Literary" was used as an insult, to describe novels that were "boring," "confusing," and where, famously, "nothing happens to a bunch of people you don't care about." (I think that is actually a paraphrase from something Tony Hillerman once said, but I might be wrong.)

In truth, however, "Literary" to me has always been a description of style, not a judgment of worth. In my own mind, literary fiction is any novel where the story's internal requirements take precedence over any external rules of the genre. Mysteries, for example, are supposed to provide you clues to deduce the solution, but not give anything away until the end. A literary mystery may follow an investigation, but will not let clue-dropping interrupt the narrative flow, nor worry about the niceties of deduction at the expense of the story's own internal themes.

Which is why, I suppose, literary mysteries are said to "transcend the genre."

By the way, SIBA and the GLBA will be joining forces this Tuesday for a bookseller forum and next year, both groups will be gathering for a joint trade show in Louisville, KayWye, at the Galt House. I will be arranging credentials for a limited number of patrons who'd like to see the upcoming titles for Christmas 2008, meet the very top authors and learn a bit more about the industry. In exchange, I'll be asking you to give me just two hours of volunteer time during the three-day weekend to help us with running the show. I guarantee you will love the experience. Two regionals have never joined together, so you can bet the publishers will be going all out to send their very best authors to this giant show. Send me an e-mail or note to express your interest. Don't trust me to "remember" unless it's down on paper.

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Here's your bestseller report from Book Sense, the independent bookstores across America.

Paperback
Hardcover
Children's

Once again, The Secret by Rhonda Byrnes is reported as the best selling book in the Louisville metropolitan area, according to BookScan.

How We Work With Book Groups

We're big supporters of book clubs, in case you didn't know it. Our staff can work with you to develop your reading lists, and we have several ways we can make your 2007-2008 book decisions easier.

First of all, we're very happy to host your club here at the store. It's fairly simple to set up for discussion groups during or after store hours, and we don't have any restrictions on any refreshments you might want to enjoy. Using the store can serve as a pretty good way to launch a book discussion group until everyone gets to know each other. Give it some thought. Whether you want to use the bookstore just once a year (for example, to make your picks) or make it a regular monthly event, we're happy to work with you.

As you may know, we have one club that is itinerant, traveling to area independent restaurants on the third Tuesday of every month. The group has remained fairly stable, with some members attending only when they like the book. It's a great success and the combination of fine dining and books is a boon to the local restaurants.

There's a recent addition to our book group program that you may be unaware of. I'm dismayed that so many book groups let economics dictate their selections. To economize, most groups choose trade paperbacks, the quality editions that sell for $12-16. But that means that the book will have been out for as much as a year - sometimes more - and much of the "heat and light" that makes a book a success has faded. Authors have moved on to their next books by that time and publishers have far less incentive to provide extras.

We want to remove the impediment of price. Since we can fairly well predict the future price of a new release (let's say it's The Book of Air and Shadows, the thriller about a mysterious Shakespeare document by Michael Gruber via William Morrow publishers). The new hardcover sells for $24.95, a price just high enough to discourage a book group from picking it up, even if it's the hottest book of the season. Major reviews, author appearances, special promotions, and huge buzz might surround it, but almost all groups around here will wait until 2008 to take it on. In the meantime, a couple will read it in hardcover and then next year be bored to read it again.

We know, within a dollar or so, what that same book will cost when it releases in trade paperback - something like $16.95, considering inflation. We figure, why wait? If a book group of five or more people doesn't want to wait, we'll sell it to you for $16.95 RIGHT NOW. Now, some clubs make their picks a year in advance, so this might not work for them. But it might be just the ticket for you.

This can be especially valuable for that hot new nonfiction book on a topical subject in the news. 18 months from now, it may have lost its relevance (say, a Barack Obama biography or John McCain's book on decision-making, Hard Call). After November of 2008, those may be duds, but that doesn't mean they won't stimulate a rousing book discussion now. I lament the fact that price influences the selections so much, so I'm making it easy for your group to READ IT NOW!

A third way we work with book groups is to offer standing discounts on books with regular trade discounts (that's pretty much every book, but not all). Any group purchasing five or more books gets an automatic 13% discount; ten or more (the rare club) gets 18% off; and 15 or more earns a hefty 23% discount off the list price - whether it's a $9.99 mass market mystery or something like the upcoming Ike, the definitive biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

You'd be surprised how many clubs (and school classes, for that matter) let their members fend for themselves to scrounge for 10-100 copies here, there, and everywhere. We can make it simple. Place a certain order and we'll even have the book there when you meet next. Give us a heads-up and we can ensure that everyone has a copy well in advance of your meeting.

We also archive book club selections on our Web site at www.destinationsbooksellers.com. Ann has placed a quick link at the top of the page so you can see what other book groups are reading. We invite your group to send us past and future lists to share with our readers.

Honestly, my forehead crinkles up when three members of a 12-member group come in to buy their next book. Where are the other nine going? And why? I remain convinced that we need a hometown bookstore, but when 9 out of 12 readers vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere...well, does that mean they want us to leave?

We welcome your suggestions as to how we can help your existing or prospective club prosper. If we can help to arrange an author visit or a live telephone call during your meeting, we'd be happy to do so.

Wow, Was I Surprised!

While perusing today's list of upcoming titles, I was startled to see the book at the right. Tolkien? Wouldn't they have emptied out that particular filing cabinet by now?

Guess not. The family of the legendary creator of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy has edited the remaining manuscripts of J.R.R. Tolkien and they will be released in less than two weeks. All I can find out about the book is that it is a narrative of an earlier Middle Earth where we discover many of the origins of the orcs, sorcerers, fairies, dwarves, and elves who inhabit the world created by this most fertile imagination.

If you are a fiend for the Rings, you'll want to be the first to read this one. Give us a call or drop us a line to reserve your copy.

The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
ISBN 9780618894642 Houghton Mifflin, 17 April 2007 (Hardcover) $26

The title is also available in a deluxe edition for $75.

For You, Only the Best

We hope to make Thursdays our preview day for children's books; that is, for pre-school and early grades picture books and outstanding books for early readers.

Interestingly enough, while kids who visit love the store, the nature of this market is inclined more to adults making selections for the children they love. Add in the dedicated school teachers who spend their own money to make sure their pupils get only the best, and it makes a lot of sense to blog to adults about children's books.

In fact, many adults without children collect the best of children's literature.

A little over a year ago, Melinda Long wrote How I Became a Pirate, the story of young Jeremy Jacob's encounter with the notorious pirate Braid Beard and his band. Much credit must also go to David Shannon, the illustrator, for helping this book earn several book of the year honors. It has been a popular choice here, too.

Now, the pirate band has returned to Jeremy's house to recover its buried treasure, but complications ensue when the wake Jeremy's baby sister, Bonney Anne, in Pirates Don't Change Diapers. Kids love pirate stories, and you will delight in this well-told tale.

ISBN 9780152053536 Harcourt Children's Books March 2007 (Reinforced HC) $16

You Are What You Eat

A quick bite, today.

Steve Ettlinger is a food writer. One day, during a picnic with his family, one of the kids went off on the ingredients listing on a package of Twinkies, the Hostess cakes that are an American guilty pleasure.

In Twinkie, Deconstructed, Ettlinger traces the path of each and every listed ingredient and we get to go along on the journey.

There's enough history (of science and food technology as well as social culture) to satisfy the generalist, and enough food trivia to please the most devoted foodie.

It's not all about the Twinkie, but Ettlinger always brings the story back to that end product. What makes it stay soft? Why doesn't it "weep" the oils and fats? Just how many Twinkies are consumed in America each year?

Find out these and other fascinating fact(oids) in the wonderful book. Do you know why Crisco was considered the healthy alternative to butter or lard? And why it suddenly became the leading culprit in the trans-fat discovery? And why Crisco is now "fully hydrogenated?"

By the way, the name Crisco was the result of an employee contest to name it, and it's derived from CRYStallized Cottonseed Oil (from which it is no longer made).

Twinkie, Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger
ISBN 9781594630187 Hudson Street Press, March 2007 (Hardcover) $23.95

Applying the Power

How good does a book have to be for it to stay exclusively in hardcover? I'm talking about books that don't require that format (cookbooks, gift books).

Well, quality doesn't really have anything to do with it. Dan Brown's novel, The DaVinci Code, continued to sell well in hardcover for 27 months before the publisher deigned to release it in paperback. That's unusual for fiction. For nonfiction, though, a book that becomes an "essential" has a longer life in hardcover. Still, you'll usually find it available in a less-costly version in no more than 15 months.

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, has finally come out in paperback after 28 months. His previous book, The Tipping Point, had already become a bible for business strategy by the time Blink released.

Gladwell isn't preaching in this book, he's reporting. In example after example, Gladwell lays out the premise of "thin-slice" decision-making and how it is frequently as valid as long, laborious research. That is, we can often trust our instinctive initial impressions instead of paralyzing ourselves trying to gather more, and more, and more information.

I've always appreciated the adage that data isn't information. Data only becomes information when it is rationally analyzed and interpreted. But paralysis by analysis can be equally futile.

In the new afterword, Gladwell recounts the Battle of Chancellorsville during the War Between the States. Gen. Hooker's forces vastly outnumbered the Confederate forces of Gen. Lee. Hooker's intelligence was far superior. How, then, did Lee prevail? The author believes he won precisely because Lee knew less than Hooker did about that battle, and therefore was able to make decisions without being bogged down by excessive data.

Buy this one. You can read it in pieces or read it in one sitting. The paperback edition comes complete with a discussion guide, making it perfect for book groups who include nonfiction titles in their selections. It may be the most useful book you'll buy this year.

I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Gladwell in Atlanta before any of you ever knew me. One of the reasons I found myself opening a bookstore in New Albany was that I had been applying the principles of Blink before I knew it was coming out. He is, to put it mildly, just as compelling in person as he is on the page.

As Gladwell told us about his then-upcoming book, it dawned on me that my life had turned in a new direction precisely when I gave up my old decision-making process (global) and began to base my decisions on this "thin-slicing" approach. Gladwell's book made me know that I was not alone, that I was not way out on a limb, but was probably using very sound principles of decision-making.

I'm very, very pleased that the book is now out in paper so we can share it with more of you.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

ISBN 9780316010665 Back Bay Books (Hardcover) Mar. 2007 $15.99

Previously on the marquee:
Indiana Starwatch by Mike Lynch (essential stargazing, spiral bound)
Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides (Kit Carson and the Navajo Wars)
Great Flood of 1937 by Rick Bell
Hansel and Gretel by Paul O. Zelinsky (great illustrations, a Caldecott Honor Book)

Joe Hill Hits It

A compelling character and exquisite storytelling combine to make Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box one of the best books I've read. Comparison to authors living or dead is inevitable, but I'm certain that Hill is destined for long-term success.

A novel rarely thrives on good writing alone. In Judas Coyne, Hill has created a character of depth who is, in so many ways, unlike anyone you've ever known. And yet, before the novel ends, you'll be completely involved in his story.

Coyne is the last surviving member of an iconic death-metal band. As he ages, his fan-base stays the same age, and thus he finds himself a god among a certain breed of disaffected youth. He collects death memorabilia - a snuff film, a cookbook for cannibals, a hangman's noose - and his fans are constantly sending him things related that they believe he will appreciate.

Then one day his assistant alerts him to an online auction site offering for sale "one ghost." Something about the offering attracts Judas, and before you know it, he's the owner of a "heart-shaped box," containing a spirit out for very specific revenge.

Truly, to tell any more will ruin the story. Let me just say it is grounded in reality and where it departs, the psychological thrills are so believable you'll find it hard to sleep.

Click on the graphic to browse inside this book.



Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
ISBN 9780061147937 William Morrow (HarperCollins) March 2007 (Hardcover) $24.95 376 pp.

Sunday Notes for April 1, 2007

Ann and I played with the idea of pulling the old April Fools’ Day stunt and announcing something like “Destinations Booksellers is sorry to announce that it will cease retail operating hours effective today.”

Ha, ha! But honestly, New Albanians and all the rest of you in these environs have demonstrated clearly that you recognize the tangible and intangible benefits of having a full-service bookstore right here in Southern Indiana. Although March was predictably slow, there is no doubt that you appreciate the breadth of our inventory and our rapid delivery of out-of-stock merchandise. Thank you, one and all.

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I’m certain that you pay far less attention to publishers than we do, but you might be interested to know that one of the larger publishers has disappeared, so to speak.

As usual, it’s the end result of a merger or acquisition. Europe’s Hachette Group pounced when the Time-Warner/AOL conglomerate began disaggregating, gobbling up the Warner Books brand. Part of the agreement required Hachette to give up the Warner brand at a date certain, and that date has arrived. Effective Friday, the new name for the concern is Grand Central Publishing.

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Harry Potter fans can relax. The cover art for the U.S. editions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Year 7, by J.K. Rowling and due out on July 21 of this year, has been released, and you can see it here. For the first time, the artwork encompasses the full cover, front and back, which you can also see here.



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Likely provocateurs for an in-demand publisher (often called a vanity press) have created a stir in the bookselling world. A fraudster has been calling around the country to order a book of short stories and leaving a false name and credit card number. Many stores, including quite a few chain stores, have fallen for the fraud.

The book is a collection of public-domain short stories from Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker, etc., leavened with a few stories from unknown authors. That's certainly one way to sell the books, since the stores are unable to return the books and have no legitimate buyers. In case you wondered and want to avoid such illegitimate publishers, the company goes by "Author Identity Press."

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According to Publishers Weekly, Indiana has 291 stores selling books, 142 of which are bookstores.

62 of them are members of the Christian Booksellers Association, while 45 are, like us, members of the American Booksellers Association, the organization that brings us the Book Sense Best Seller list and other great promotional opportunities.

There are 26 Borders/Waldenbooks and 14 Barnes & Noble stores. Of course, the PW survey doesn't take into account the Louisville and Chicago metropolitan markets, so Indiana is "served," if you want to call it that, by a few more stores than are reported. almost one-third of those 142 stores are in the Indianapolis market, but Indy has only one full-service independent general bookstore. Guess New Albany ain't doin' so bad, huh? Indy's Big Hat Books is about one-third the size of Destinations Booksellers.

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Here's your link to the latest Book Sense Best Seller lists:

Paperback
Hardcover
Children's

Kim Edwards' The Memory Keeper's Daughter continues to rule the paperback fiction list, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert tops the nonfiction paperback report.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult leads the hardcover fiction list and The Secret, edited by Rhonda Byrnes resides at the top of the nonfiction hardcover screen.

The top children's book is Christopher Paolini's Eldest. In picture books, Pirates Don't Change Diapers is at the top.

The April Book Sense picks and notables can be found here.

The number one book in the Louisville metro area during the latest reporting period (ending 3/24/07) is The Secret, according to BookScan.