No press, large or small, can afford to ignore marquee authors with solid platforms in today's frenetic marketplace. Rowman & Littlefield is taking substantial orders for a memoir by former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and Janet Langhart Cohen, which recounts their coming of age as an interracial power couple. Melville House is also taking a flyer on a first novel by Benoît Duteurtre, a leading French intellectual and TV host. Of course, many small presses are also committed to emerging writers, like children's publisher Immedium, which introduces author and illustrator Meomi, who's turned to picture books after developing art projects for Fisher-Price/Mattel.
Love in Black and White: A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Romance
by William S. Cohen with Janet Langhart Cohen
Rowman & Littlefield (NBN, dist.), $24.95; Feb.; 50,000 copiesAppearances in Washington, D.C., and New York City; 15-city radio tour; Valentine's Day push
The former Secretary of Defense is leading a new campaign—for the loyalty of the book-buying public. Earlier this summer, he published his first thriller, Dragon Fire (Forge). Now, Cohen, who is Jewish and Irish-American, and his wife, journalist Janet Langhart Cohen, who is African-American, have teamed up on a joint coming-of age story combining love and politics. Janet (author of the 2004 memoir From Rage to Reason) writes of friends like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahalia Jackson; Cohen of his role on Capitol Hill for 26 years. Former President Bill Clinton calls this "a great love story, and much more. Bill and Janet Cohen show what can happen when people from diverse backgrounds move beyond their differences to embrace their common humanity."
This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down
by Deborah Collins Stephens, Jackie Speier, Michealene Cristini Risley and Jan Yanehiro
Conari, $19.95; Mar.; 35,000 copies6-city tour, starting with the Bay Area; Book Sense White Box mailing; Mother's Day co-op
Among them, the authors have six marriages, 10 children, four stepchildren, six dogs, two miscarriages, two cats, a failed adoption, widowhood and foster parenthood. One was shot and left for dead on a tarmac in South America. And yet their book, which grew out of monthly gatherings over a decade, is decidedly upbeat. Journalist Linda Ellerbee calls their tales of recovery and triumph over hardship "a welcome source of inspiration and insight."
Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers
by Amy Stewart
Algonquin, $23.95; Feb. 9; 20,000 copies15-city tour; online marketing
Almost any flower, in any color, is for sale at any time of the year anywhere—and not just in florists' shops. That's one reason why buyer Holly Myer at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, Wash., is "super excited" about Stewart's look at how flowers get to our tables. "What's intriguing to me is the correlation between independent bookstores and flower shops," she says. Gardener Dana Brigham at Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Mass., calls the book "Fast Food Nation for flowers" and will recommend it to Book Sense.
The Little Girl and the Cigarette
by Benoît Duteurtre
Melville House(Consortium, dist.), $12.95 paper; Feb. 1; 10,000 copies5-city tour: N.Y., Chicago, San Francisco, L.A. and Seattle
What Milan Kundera admires most about this novel by French hipster and TV host Duteurtre is "the clarity with which [it] unmasks the fundamental stupidity of our modern world." In the book, a death row inmate becomes a media darling when he demands his right to a final cigarette—in a smoke-free prison. Meanwhile, a petty bureaucrat fears the electric chair when a little girl accuses him of sexual perversion after catching him sneaking a cigarette. Everything but the rebus on the cover was translated by Charlotte Mandell.
The Octonauts: And the Only Lonely Monster
by Meomi
Immedium (Consortium, dist.), $15.95; Nov.;3-city tour: L.A., San Francisco and Vancouver
Illustrator and commercial artist Meomi's adorable critters, which already adorn clothing, cell phones and billboards through deals with Fisher-Price/Mattel and Cingular Wireless, were the inspiration for this underwater adventure, in which they make friends with a monster. Shannon Mathis, children's book buyer at Books Inc., plans to stock the book at all the company's San Francisco stores. "The art work is very good and reminds me of Hello Kitty," she says.
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