Book News

Andro Linklater, English author of Measuring America: How the Greatest Land Sale in History Shaped the United States (Walker), a November/December Book Sense 76 pick, is continuing a long and worthy tradition, going back at least as far as de Toucqueville, of Europeans showing their American cousins the truth and relevance of what's under their very noses.

Or, in this case, beneath our feet.

Silas House grew up in a family of storytellers. The most gifted among them was Dave Sizemore, his great-uncle. Sizemore died in 1997, and with his death, House suddenly realized that a rich and wonderful history had gone with him.

That's when House, who had had writing aspirations since childhood, finally decided to seriously pursue his own brand of storytelling.

Here's the first of the Winter Kids' 76, intended for use from December and into the new year. (The next Kids' 76 won't be until late spring 2003.) This is the result of great recommendations, as always, but the Top Ten was child's play to figure out, if you will!

This 76 will be in the November white box mailing, if we can get it off to, and back from, the printer in time. Stay tuned.

Full 76 to run here next week.

Carl
[email protected]

The full November/December Book Sense 76 -- with booksellers' recommendations -- has been posted on BookWeb.org at http://news.bookweb.org/read/888.

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

Thanks to all the stores that report, the new expanded electronic reporting options, and the software our team here has built to sort and slice a ton of data according to BISAC categories, this is the latest of many subject category lists to run in BTW each week. These are intended as inventory checking tools for booksellers, alerts to publishers as to what’s selling, and lists that the media can run.

An Interview with Michael Perry, Author of Book Sense Pick Population: 485

When Lynne Barrett, an Edgar-winning short story writer and creative writing teacher at Florida International University, became pregnant with her son, she began looking for literary works that described what she was experiencing. Instead, the material in the pregnancy books that she read seemed all too clinical and understated. In a recent interview with BTW, she explained, "I wanted to read work that explored the experience in all of its emotion, humor, and drama."

Jimmy Scott was born with Kallman's Syndrome, a rare deficiency that interferes with sexual maturation. So, when he entered New York's jazz scene in the 1950s, listeners heard a high-pitched, androgynous singing voice. At first, his unique vocals seemed out of place in an age when Nat King Cole and Billy Eckstine were hit-makers, but audiences soon caught on.

Dear Booksellers,

Well, you did it again. Thank you! A record number of submissions … and from a number of new voices. This 76 has more first-time nominators than ever, a very good sign.

Carl
[email protected]

1. BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS, by Sijie Dai (Anchor, $10 paper, 0385722206; Nov. 1)

"'I'm Rose Pardue, of Rosemont,' Rose had introduced herself as a girl. It had been her open sesame all over the Black Belt of Alabama. She fixed her once-famous eyes on the girl by her bed." So begins the first story of Mary Ward Brown's new collection, It Wasn't All Dancing and Other Stories, published by the University of Alabama Press (UAP) as part of its Deep South Book series.

On Wednesday, October 16, the National Book Foundation announced the finalists for the 2002 National Book Awards. The awards are presented in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. Among the finalists were four titles previously selected by independent booksellers as Book Sense 76 picks. (See below for the list of finalists.)

Book Sense's literary streak of seven straight network morning show picks ended last Monday when The Today Show's book club chose a book that was not a Book Sense 76 title. However, Book Sense's Good Morning America book club streak is still alive -- the morning show's "Read This!" book club has chosen five books since the club began last June, and all five titles have been Book Sense 76 picks.

On Monday, October 7, NBC News' The Today Show announced that the fourth selection of its monthly "Today's Book Club" is Raising Fences: A Black Man's Love Story, by Michael Datcher (Riverhead Books). Author Terry McMillan, author of Waiting to Exhale, chose this month's selection. Both McMillan and Datcher were guests on the morning show.