|
|
Weekly Words about BooksMarch 23, 2014
|
 |
|
New Paperbacks On Indie Bestseller Lists
|
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Keirnan. At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, T ennessee, was home to 75,000 residents. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. People from across the country - many of them young women from small towns throughout the South - were recruited to work in the giant factories of this secret city. And the nature of the work was also kept a secret from the workers - none of them knew they were key cogs in the Manhattan Project and that Oak Ridge was an epicenter of uranium enrichment and atomic bomb making. Author Kiernan draws on interviews with 10 women who lived and worked at Oak Ridge to capture an amazing slice of largely unknown history.
Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford. Ford's first novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, is an independent bookstore staple and book club favorite. It's set in Seattle during World War II, at the time of Ja panese internment camps, and it tells a heartwarming story of a widower and his first love. Now, in Songs of Willow Frost, Ford conjures up another satisfying family drama with Depression-era Seattle as the backdrop. Twelve-year-old William Eng lives at the Sacred Heart Orphanage, but he still has vivid memories of his mother, who turned him over to the Catholic sisters for reasons unknown five years earlier. On a birthday trip to a movie house, he sees actress Willow Frost onscreen and is convinced that she is his mother. What follows is William's escape from the orphanage and his attempts to track down Willow and become part of a family again.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler. This rich imagining of the life of a literary icon was an indie bestseller in hardcover and immediately returned to the list when the paperback hit store shelves. This booksell  er review describes the book's appeal to so many: "Z gives voice to a much unknown and misunderstood literary figure. While Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald led a very public life in many ways, Zelda was often forced to operate in a lifestyle that would make any modern woman squirm with discontent, if not cry out with a vengeance. Fowler breathes life into a voice who very much deserved to be heard in her own time and now. Any lover of the art, literature, and culture of the Jazz Age will not be disappointed with this read."
-Karl Meutsch, Phoenix Books, Essex Junction, VT
| |
|
|
|
| | A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power by Jimmy Carter. Ex-president Carter has proven to be a prolific writer since leaving office; this is his 28th published book! A nd as his wont, he once again tackles a difficult and timely issue - the world's discrimination and violence against women and girls.
President Carter was encouraged to write this book by a wide coalition of leaders of all faiths. His urgent report covers a system of discrimination that extends to every nation. Women are deprived of equal opportunity in wealthier nations and "owned" by men in others, forced to suffer servitude, child marriage, and genital cutting. The most vulnerable, along with their children, are trapped in war and violence.
In A Call To Action, Carter shines an accusing light on myriad shocking, humiliating, and inhuman practices in the hopes that revelations and condemnations will provoke long-needed change. An important book from a still-engaged ex-President.
|
|
|
What a Mural!
| |
This is the side of the building that houses Loganberry Books, an independent bookstore selling new, used, and rare books in Cleveland, Ohio. Pretty cool, no?
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
