Book News

Life is full of mysteries.

Consider career choices.

Whitney Terrell of Kansas City comes from a family of painters: His great-grandfather was a professional artist. His insurance-executive grandfather painted throughout his life and had pictures "all over the city." Terrell's uncle was an artist, and one of his sisters is a painter who works in advertising.

It might have been predicted, then, that if Whitney Terrell felt an urge to make art, he too would be a painter.

As listeners of National Public Radio's Morning Edition finished breakfast, drove to work, or settled into the first tasks of the day on December 12, they heard the voice of independent bookseller Nancy Olson of Quail Ridge Books and Music in Raleigh, North Carolina, telling them that "there are so many good books this season….

Anu Garg and Al Gore share more than initials. Both are authors of new books co-written with their wives, and both were treated to warm receptions last month at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, where they spoke and signed books, just days apart.

Based on the last four weeks of sales from over 350 independent bookstores across America.

The January/February 2003 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, on sale January 14, will include a Book Sense ad featuring the title Old Flames by John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly Press, 0871138646). Virginia Powers of Olsson's Books in Washington, D.C. provides the Book Sense recommendation.

Another Lawton title, Black Out (Penguin, 0142002763) is also featured in the ad.

For a downloadable PDF of this and other recent Book Sense ads in print, click here.

Fern Jaffe, owner of Paperbacks Plus, with author Robert Caro

When Paperbacks Plus in the Bronx, New Yo

This seems the perfect time of year for a book about the late jazz tenor saxophonist John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, the enduringly popular LP recording first issued in 1965. Coltrane's album, created by the musician-composer as "a gift to the Divine," invokes a universal love and spiritual consciousness close to the heart of a season sacred to several faiths.

As the retail analysts tussled over whether this year's holiday sales would be robust or merely routine, shoppers nationwide headed off to superstores, malls, main streets, and shopping centers, giving the shopping season a very positive start. Overall, retail sales for Black Friday were estimated at $7.4 billion, a 12.3 percent jump over 2001, according to ShopperTrak RCT.

Dear Booksellers,

Again, thank you! Right after the regional shows, the recommendations started flooding in. Do note that a lot of the ARC's at the shows were for books pubbing February or later, so I've saved those e-mails of yours for the March/April 76, which is already looking fantastic!!

Actually, there weren't a lot of surprises. These are probably all books you're aware of. I was looking for some backlist and any especially well-priced gifty books in the top 50 of our data.

A new kid's book doing well:

• #24 Christmas Day in the Morning, by Pearl S. Buck; illus. by Mark Buehner (HarperCollins, $16.99, 0688162673) -- originally published in 1955, now reissued as an illustrated book
  

In trade paper:

The author speaks to BTW about writing, green cards, and the Holy Grail

On Tuesday, December 3, NBC News' Today Show announced that the sixth selection of its monthly "Today Book Club" is Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker (HarperCollins). The title was a 2002 November/December Book Sense 76 pick. Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes, chose this month's selection. Both Baker and McCourt were guests on the morning show.

If you're of a certain age, you've probably heard the riddle "What's black and white and read all over?" (Answer: a newspaper.)

Book Sense's Good Morning America book club streak continues. The popular morning show's "Read This!" book club chose its sixth title, and all six titles have been Book Sense 76 picks.

By Carl Lennertz

Publisher Ad Kudos:
Many, many, many thanks to all the publishers who advertise with us in our ad format, and to those who mention Book Sense in their own ads. Please give these books an extra look.

In the November issue of BookPage, Hyperion has a nice ad for The Sunday Wife with a Book Sense 76 mention and logo: