|
|
Weekly Words about BooksNOVEMBER 24, 2013
|
|
Small Business Saturday
| |
Looking for a break from Black Friday hype? Small Business Saturday is a day dedicat  ed to supporting small local businesses across the country. Founded by American Express in 2010, this day is celebrated every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which makes this year's Small Business Saturday, November 30th. Some of you may have seen the TV ad for the day; if not, take a look. It's a nice message, certainly one that independent bookstores and your other locally owned retailers hope you'll support! |
 |
|
Beloved Female Sleuths Return for New Installments
|
| TAKEDOWN TWENTY by Janet Evanovich. Often inept but always en dearing New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum tracks a missing mob boss no one else wants to mess with while investigating (with hunky fellow bounty hunter Ranger) the murder of an old woman who played bingo with Stephanie's daffy Grandma Mazur. As usual, a fast, fun read laced with Evanovich's trademark Jersey humor.
CRITICAL MASS by Sara Paretsky. Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski helps out her closest friend, Viennese-born doctor and Holocaust survivor Lotty  Herschel, when the daughter of one of Lotty's childhood friends finds her life threatened. In the course of the investigation, Vic uncovers lies and secrets whose origins go back to the mad competition among America, Germany, Japan and England to develop the first atomic bomb. Paretsky weaves history into a complex but rewarding plot featuring the 16th appearance of her dogged detective.
DUST by Patricia Cornwell. Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta takes on a gruesome new case, that of a murdered MIT computer engineer who se body is oddly draped in an unusual cloth and covered with a fine dust. Clearly the body has been posed with a premeditation that is symbolic and meant to shock. Scarpetta worries that the person responsible is the Capital Murderer, whose most recent sexual homicides have terrorized Washington, D.C. and drawn the attention of Scarpetta's hubby, FBI profiler Benton Wesley. Cornwell offers up lots of tension along with the latest in forensic technology in the latest addition to her famed series.
|
|
|
|
National Book Awards Honor Four Titles
| |
The winners of the 2013 National Book Awards were announced on Wednesday, November 20, at the 64th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner.
This year's winners are:
FICTION
The Good Lord Bird
by James McBride (Riverhead Books)
NONFICTION
The Unwinding: An Inner History
of the New America
by George Packer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
POETRY
Incarnadine: Poems
by Mary Szybist (Graywolf )
YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE
The Thing About Luck
by Cynthia Kadohata
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
|
|
|
Shake, Shake, Shake!
| |
One popular gift book at independent bookstores this holiday season is SHAKE by Oregon photographer and animal trainer Carli Davidson. Both original and amusing, Shake features a collection of beguiling dogs caught in the most candid of moments: mid-shake. It's great fun to look at and a good gift idea for canine lovers.
To get an idea of what the book looks like and how the photos were taken, take a look at this short video. Spoiler alert - the video contains enough drool and slobber to drown a cat. http://vimeo.com/77111226
|
|
Join the
Get Hut's Place
Every Week -
No Charge!
If You're Already a Subscriber, How About Forwarding to a Friend?
Your e-mail will
never be shared!
|
|
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
| |
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.
|
|
WHERE TO
FIND AN INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
