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PW Picks: On Sale the Week of December 5, 2011
New this week: three cozy mysteries, two less-than-cozy mysteries, inspiration for the moralist and the gastronomic, the first volume of Fantagraphic's complete Pogo comic strip collection, and more.
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The Worst Book Ever is 'Microwave for One'
In 1987, The Book Services Ltd published a slim, 144-page cookbook called Microwave for One. The book is by Sonia Allison, who has quite a few publications under her belt. But she’s best known for her masterpiece of tragedy, a book whose title and cover is so rife with sadness that one almost has the urge to brush the invisible tears from Ms. Allison’s face as she leans over her microwave and her food spread.
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Art Check: Images from These Shores
This past week, Doubleday released a lavish volume of African American history featuring nearly 900 illustrations and text by lauded author and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
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PW Picks: On Sale the Week of November 28, 2011
Newsworthy releases this week include a star-worthy new Harry Bosch mystery from Michael Connelly, another installment in Diana Gabaldon’s much-loved Lord John series, Marie Lu’s ambitious YA series kickoff, and more.
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PW Tip Sheet: Books v. The Togetherness Imperative
We all need an escape from the overstuffed holiday-time itinerary, but quiet time with a book isn’t necessarily compatible with the traditional Family Togetherness Imperative. The answer? Movies.
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Reading List: Yes! Magazine's Brooke Jarvis
On November 17, the same day as Occupy Wall Street’s Day of Action, Barrett-Kohler released a guide to the movement called This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, put together by the editors of Yes! Magazine. Here, Yes! web editor Brooke Jarvis gives us a list of follow-up titles for those who want a better understanding of the stakes.
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PW Picks: On Sale the Week of November 21, 2011
Picks this week include new poems from an NBA winner, everyone's favorite octogenarian funny-lady, secrets of a legendary mystery novelist, exploding numbers, wild romance, two posthumous novels, and more.
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Three Questions for a Bookseller: Rabelais in Portland, ME
Samantha Lindgren, who co-owns cookbook shop Rabelais in Portland, Me. with her husband Don Lindgren, spoke with Tip Sheet about the hot culinary titles of the holiday season.
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PW Tip Sheet: Libraries Under Attack (Literally)
At just two months old, the Occupy Wall Street movement already has its first book, released by Berrett-Koehler and the editors of Yes! Magazine on Nov. 17, OWS’s official Day of Action. Called This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, it couldn’t have dropped at a more resonant moment
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And Then There Were Notebooks: A Q&A with John Curran
Agatha Christie archivist (and lifelong fan) John Curran releases Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Agatha Christie’s Notebooks, his second volume of posthumous discoveries from Christie’s unpublished notes. Emailing from Dublin, Curran previews some of those discoveries for Tip Sheet.
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Excerpt: Sound and Somnolence
An exlusive excerpt from NBA-winning poet Nathaniel Mackey's newest volume, Nod House, out November 21 from New Directions.
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The Worst Book Ever Is 'Dildo Cay'
Dildo Cay is a book written by Nelson Hayes in 1940 and published by Houghton Mifflin and it’s also called Dildo Cay. Just wanted to stress that part. The cover of the book is pictured above, and its centerpiece, a far-off vertical shaft on the cay, does ridiculously little to dispel its unfortunate title.
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Art Check: 25 Years of Oprah
Abram's official Oprah Winfrey Show retrospective lands this Tuesday, with a 350,000-copy one-day laydown. Called The Oprah Winfrey Show: Reflections on an American Legacy, it features text by author Deborah Davis and an enormous volume of photographs capturing all aspects of the 5-day-a-week institution. For a taste of what's sure to be a runaway bestseller, check out these preview photos.
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Handicapping the Field: NBA Finalists in Fiction
The 2011 National Book Award winners will be announced next week on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Below, a score-card for your office or at-home betting pool and a breakdown of the fiction contenders from 2010 NBA winner Jaimy Gordon.
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PW Tip Sheet: In Defense of Not Finishing
I am a slow reader, and not just because I read six or ten books at once. On my to-finish table are one time-travel thriller, one dysfunctional family novel, one Vietnam war novel, three books of short stories, two classics-in-translation and, most recently, a thousand-plus-page journal of psychonautical self-discovery called The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.
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PW Picks: On Sale the Week of November 14, 2011
It doesn’t get any bigger than this week’s biggest release: Jeff Kinney’s sixth entry in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Cabin Fever, drops an astounding 6 million copies on the book-buying world this Tuesday, the biggest release of the year in both kids’ and adult books.
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Q&A: Why Kevin Wilson Loves Nicole Kidman
Just two months after the release of Kevin Wilson's debut novel, the production company of Nicole Kidman and Per Saari had acquired the screen rights--with Kidman herself expected to fill the role of clan matriarch Camille Fang. PW caught up with Wilson for a phone interview about movie adaptations, Nicole Kidman’s strangest roles, and why happy endings make no sense.
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Q&A: Deborah Davis, Keeper of Oprah's Flame
Abrams celebrates the legacy of America’s most beloved talk-show host with this week’s release of The Oprah Winfrey Show: Reflections on an American Legacy. Nonfiction author Deborah Davis, whose friends describe her beat as “the rich and the dead,” was tapped to write Abrams's 25-year retrospective. The Tip Sheet spoke to her over the phone this week about condensing 25 years of television history into a six-month whirlwind of viewing, researching, and writing.
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PW Tip Sheet: The Best Books Blues
It’s that time of year again: the time when Publishers Weekly puts out our Best Books list, which—lucky you!—debuts in today’s PW Tip Sheet. Not coincidentally, it’s also the time when I discover that I’ve wasted my reading year on less-than-the-best, and subsequently tack 25 or 50 new titles onto my to-read list.
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Two Questions for a Bookseller
Jef Blocker, a manager at Atlanta’s six-year-old Bound to be Read Books, fills us in on some spooky happenings among the stacks.