Book News

Steve Almond hates coconut and despises Twizzlers, but he loves every other type of candy. And in his new book, Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America (Algonquin), which is the number one May Book Sense Pick, Almond recounts his fascinating and sweet-laden tour of eight American candy factories, from Idaho to San Francisco, Vermont to Tennessee.

A remarkable amount of media coverage of Richard A. Clarke's Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror (Free Press) has created a demand that booksellers are struggling to supply. A March 26, page-one story in the New York Times led with a description of the "literary phenomenon" of the book at Washington, D.C.'s Politics and Prose Bookstore.

Novelist Karen Joy Fowler "cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation" of her love for Jane Austen's novels. Like many other writers she has a hundred reasons for loving Austen, but she particularly responds to the power and invention of Austen's narrative voice.

Behind many great books are great booksellers, not just those who promote them and persuade others to buy them, but the authors of the books themselves. BTW found a number of booksellers and friends who have written books of all kinds and introduced them in "Books by Booksellers and the People Who Love Them" (news.bookweb.org/read/2326). Additions must already be made to that original list, and many others are still out there. BTW would like to know about any new books by booksellers and friends.

Author Alice Hoffman chose The Photograph by Penelope Lively (Viking) as the next title to be read by the Today Book Club. The announcement was made on NBC's Today Show on Tuesday, March 23.

For the four-week sales period ending March 21, 2004, and based on reporting from hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

June 6, 2004, will mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the allied assault on Normandy that marked a pivotal moment in World War II. This June, The History Channel will air a week of specially themed programming focusing on D-Day and the war in Europe.

June 6, 2004, will mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the allied assault on Normandy that marked a pivotal moment in World War II. This June, The History Channel will air a week of specially themed programming focusing on D-Day and the war in Europe.

Independent booksellers sure can pick 'em. Three Book Sense 76 Picks have recently won prestigious literary awards: Edward P. Jones' The Known World (Amistad Press), a Book Sense Top Ten September/October 2003 pick, took the National Book Critics Circle award for fiction. Jennifer Haigh's Mrs.