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Weekly Words about Books APRIL 7, 2013
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Is This Book Really
Good Enough to Eat?
| Sales reps play an essential role in the bookselling world. They visit stores 2-3 times a year and introduce book buyers to the latest titles being published by their companies. And while part of their job is to express enthusiasm for what they're selling at the moment, the good reps know they'll back in a few months with a new crop of forthcoming books to pitch, so they can't go overboard about every good new book.
But Wendy Pearl, a sales rep for The Penguin Group in the San Francisco area, just couldn't help herself a few months ago. She was pre-selling a new debut novel that she really loved, and she was determined to get her bookstore buyers to read the book and, if they liked it, nominate it for the monthly IndieNext list of books recommended by independent booksellers. In a room full of such booksellers, she urged them to try the book and said that if they did, she was confident their praise would land the title on the IndieNext list. So confident, as a matter of fact, that if it didn't she would eat a copy of the book.
The book in question, now out on bookstore shelves, is The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jasma. Thankfully, Wendy will not have to eat his words because the novel is also safely on the April IndieNext list.
As well it should be. This is inventive and witty debut from Jasma, about a young  man's quest to become a writer and the misadventures in life and love that take him around the globe. The man in question is also the narrator of the story, and he is both inspired and haunted by the success of his greatest friend and rival in writing, the eccentric and brilliantly talented Julian McGann, and endlessly enamored with Julian's enchanting friend, Evelyn,the girl who got away. From the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, these three remarkably engaging characters grow up and grow old, fall in and out of love, write novels and wed wealthy European aristocrats.
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is a brilliant exploration of the art of storytelling - Jasma weaves examples of his characters' writing throughout - as well as a compelling story of three friends trying to make their way in the world. And it's popularity with booksellers means Wendy Pearl won't have to switch to a high-fiber diet this month.
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Great Paperback Reads - One New, One Old
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| The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel, by Rachel Joyce. Unlikely indeed - an ordinary man living a predictable, boring life takes an extraordinary but leisurely jour ney to confront lost love. On the road, Harold becomes a traveling Everyman and finds new strength and character. Here's one independent bookseller's recommendation, from last August's IndieNext list when the book was published in hardcover.
Recently retired Harold Fry receives an unsettling letter from a co-worker from years past. Queenie is dying in hospice and when Harold sets out to post a return letter, he is seized by the idea that if he keeps walking, Queenie will live. So begins a pilgrimage of personal transformation for Harold - and quite possibly for the reader as well. Insightful and touching, this journey will stay with readers for quite some time.
-Julia MacDonald, The Yankee Bookshop, Woodstock, VT
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Acclaimed as one of Africa's greatest writers, Nigerian-born Acheube passed away last month. As is often the case, his death drew new attention to his life and his work, so it is not a surprise that his first novel has found its way onto independent bestseller lists.  Things Fall Apart was first published in 1958; since then it has sold over 2,000,000 copies, and has been translated into 30 language. It's a true classic of international literature and is a staple of high school reading curriculums.
The story, set in pre-colonial Nigeria in the 1890s, follows two tracks - the fall from grace of Okonkwo, a leader in a small Nigerian village, and the arrival of European missionaries intent on converting the native people to their beliefs. And while the book is fiction, Aceube said upon its publication that one of his purposes was to present a complex, dynamic society to a Western audience who perceived African society as primitive, simple, and backward.
He followed that up in 1965 when he stated, "I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past - with all its imperfections - was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God's behalf delivered them."
If you never read Things Fall Apart, now might a good time to give it a try.
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A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
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My name is Hut Landon. I'm a former bookstore owner who now runs the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA) in San Francisco.
My goal with this newsletter is to keep readers up to date about new books hitting the shelves, share what booksellers are recommending in their stores, and pass on occasional news about the book world.
I'm not into long, wordy reviews or literary criticism; I'd like HUT'S PLACE to be a quick, fun read for book buyers.If you have any friends who you think might like receiving this column each week, simply click on "Forward this email" below and enter their email address. There is also a box in which to add a short message.
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WHERE TO FIND A BOOKSTORE
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Many of you already have a favorite local bookstore, but for those of you without such a relationship, this link will take you to a list of Northern California indie bookstores by region.
If you live or work elsewhere, you can click here to find the nearest indie bookstore by simply entering your postal code.
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