Raab Gets Life Lessons
Jamie Raab at Grand Central preempted Regina Brett's God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours via Linda Loewenthal at David Black, who had two previous preemptive offers from other publishers. Brett is a Pulitzer finalist for commentary at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland and host of a local NPR program; the book is inspired by a popular column she wrote when she turned 50, on the 50 lessons life taught her, and will include those lessons and new ones. Grand Central has world rights.
Religion and Baseball From Chris Park
Joey Paul at Hachette's FaithWords acquired world English rights to Daniel Harrell's How to Be Like God: One Church's Experiment with Living the Old Testament Book of Leviticus via Chris Park at Foundry, who had significant interest from New York and CBA publishers. Harrell, a minister and preacher for the past 23 years at Park Street Church, the largest church in Boston, will describe his church's month-long experiment living out the mandates of Leviticus, which many Christians feel is largely irrelevant to the church today. From trying to lay sins on a herd of cattle to building a tabernacle in an apartment, the challenge drew in many outside of the church, including Messianic Jews and animal rights activists, through Harrell's Living Leviticus Facebook site.
In another deal brokered by Park, Jonathan Crowe at Da Capo bought Tim Wendel's High Heat: The Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time. Wendel will take a look at the mystique of the fastball, investigating legends Nolan Ryan, Walter Johnson, Satchel Paige and Sandy Koufax, alongside present-day standard-bearers like Roger Clemens, in his search for the definitive answer. Da Capo has North American rights, and pub date is spring 2010. The deal is Crowe's first buy for the house.
Double Dealing
Katie Gilligan at Thomas Dunne Books just concluded negotiations for two separate two-book deals with Ryan Fischer Harbage. In the first, Gilligan bought North American rights to Susan Shapiro's first novel, Speed Shrinking, about a self-help guru who loses her best friend, husband and therapist in the same weekend, prompting her to visit eight shrinks in eight days. Shapiro is the author of the memoirs Five Men Who Broke My Heart and Lighting Up.
Gilligan also bought Kate Rockland's debut novel, Falling Is Like This, about an intense affair between a young, recent East Village transplant and an older, punk rock guitarist; Rockland, a nursery school teacher living in Hoboken, N.J., is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. This deal was also for North American rights.
The Briefing
Harper assistant editor Michael Signorelli has signed up a new novel by Charlie Smith called Three Delays; PJ Mark at McCormick & Williams sold North American rights. Smith's first novel in 12 years is the story of a reporter-turned-junkie who can't seem to let go of his childhood sweetheart. Smith is the author of five previous novels, four of which were New York Times notable books. Likely pub date is 2010.
