Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” has received attention from Harvard Lampoon with the just-released “Nightlight.”  this is Harvard Lampoon’s first parody since the 1969 “Bored of the Rings.”  continuing its string of exclusive’s, EW’s Shelf Life featured the first chapter a couple of days ago for our reading enjoyment.  below are the first 3 paragraphs, but check out the entire first chapter.  funniest use of Diaspora ever.

1. FIRST LOOK

The hot phoenix sun glared down on the car windowsill where my bare, pallid arm dangled shamelessly. My mom and I were both going to the airport, but only I had a ticket waiting for me, and that ticket was one-way.

I had a dejected, brooding expression on my face, and I could tell from the reflection in the window that it was also an intriguing expression. It seemed out of place, coming from a girl in a sleeveless, lacy top and bell-bottom jeans (stars on the back pockets). But I was that kind of girl — out of place. Then I shifted from that place on the dashboard to a normal position in the seat. Much better.

I was exiling myself from my mom’s home in Phoenix to my dad’s home in Switchblade. As a self-exiled exile, I would know the pain of Diaspora and the pleasure of imposing it, callously disregarding my own pleas to say one last good-bye to the potted fungus I was cultivating. I had to coarsen my skin if I was going to be a refugee in Switchblade, a town in northwest Oregon that no one knows about. Don’t try to look it up on a map — it’s not important enough for mapmakers to care about. And don’t even think about looking me up on that map — apparently, I’m not important enough either.

the book is ranked 766 in Amazon sales, but has no holds at Sno-Isle.  do twilighters take their Bella and Edward too seriously to read a paraody?

posting by marin

PW and Amazon released their top lists for the year. for the first time, PW includes a top 10 (both fiction and nonfiction) which has no overlapping titles with Amazon’s top 10 (devoted solely to fiction and literature).

Amazon’s Top Ten for 2009:

“Let the Great World Spin: A Novel” by Colum McCann

“Wolf Hall: A Novel” by Hilary Mantel

“Brooklyn: A Novel” by Colm Toibin

“This is Where I Leave You” by Jonathan Tropper

“A Gate at the Stairs” by Lorrie Moore

“Tinkers” by Paul Harding

“Spooner” by Pete Dexter

“Sag Harbor: A Novel” by Colson Whitehead

“The Informers” by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

“Cutting for Stone: A Novel” by Abraham Verghese

(authors, take note: including ‘A Novel’ in one’s subtitle is key to appearing on Amazon’s list)

and PW’s Top 10 for 2009:

“The Age of Wonder” by Richard Holmes

“Await Your Reply” by Dan Chaon

“Big Machine” by Victor LaValle

“Cheever” by Blake Bailey

“A Fiery Peace in a Cold War” by Neil Sheehan

“In Other Rooms, Other Wonders” by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi” by Geoff Dyer

“Lost City of Z” by David Grann

Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford

“Stitches” by David Small

the top 100 editors’ picks for Amazon is available, as well as PW’s.

(via EarlyWord and Shelf Awareness)

posting by marin who would really appreciate an easy-to-copy list of the titles and authors for next year’s blog posting

By Calvin Reid — Publishers Weekly, 11/2/2009 4:16:00 PM

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.
Jeff Kinney.
Abrams/Amulet, $13.95 ISBN 978-0-8109-8391-5
Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is a publishing phenomenon. Dog Days, the fourth book in the hybrid comics and prose series sold more than 1 million copies at launch and went back to press for 500,000 copies. Store events attract mobs and the series is a global bestseller. Number two on the list? Wimpy Kid: Last Straw, the previous book.

2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Last Straw.
Jeff Kinney.
Abrams/Amulet, $12.95 ISBN 978-0-8109-7068-7

3. Naruto, Volume 46.
Mashashi Kishimoto.
Viz Media, $7.95 ISBN 978-1-4215-3304-9

4. Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks.
Max Brooks and Ibraim Roberson
Three Rivers Press, $17. ISBN 978-0-307-40577-7
Based on Max Brook’s 2003 hit, Zombie Survival Guide, which now has over a million copies in print; Recorded Attacks, with drawings by Ibraim Roberson, is a graphic novel update that now has 133,000 copies in print after 3 printings. The book just won’t die!

5. The Book of Genesis Illustrated.
R. Crumb..
W.W. Norton, $24.95 ISBN 978-0-393-06102-4
R. Crumb calls, The Book of Genesis Illustrated, a “straight illustration job,”—there’s no satire or visual jokes, just a serious transformation of Genesis into comics. Norton released 50,000 copies initially; has gone back to press for 30,000 more and Crumb’s signing at B&N Union Square was packed with more than 600 rapt fans.

6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: Predators and Prey, Volume 5.
Jane Espenson and Steven S. DeKnight et al.
Dark Horse, $10.99 ISBN 978-1-59582-342-7

7. Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth.
Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna.
Bloomsbury, $22.95 ISBN 978-1-59691-452-0
Bloomsbury’s Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, an unusual graphic biography and intellectual adventure focused on the life of the great mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell, has more than 35,000 copies in print after three printings. Publicity director Peter Miller says, “backorders are still coming in; demand is steady and retailers plan to promote beyond the holidays into the new year. We couldn’t be happier.”

8. Rosario + Vampire, Volume 9
Akihisa Ikeda..
Viz Media, $9.99 ISBN 978-1-4215-2354-5

9. Chibi Vampire, Volume 14.
Yuna Kagesaki.
Tokyopop, $10.99 ISBN 978-1-4278-1625-2

10. Full Metal Alchemist, Volume 20.
Hiromu Arakawa.
Viz Media, $9.99 ISBN 978-1-421-53034-5

Kinney’s Dog days is, by far, our most popular title on this list.  We currently have over 470 holds. Book of Genesis and Logicomix are receiving strong reviews.

Posted by Becky

People considering an eBook reader for themselves or as a gift have more options than just the Kindle and Sony.  The Nook from Barnes & Noble the latest entry into the market is taking pre-orders for a ship date sometime this month.  Jason Griffey has written a thoughtful review on ALA Tech Source that compares the Nook against the Kindle.

Via  ALA Tech Source:

“The Amazon Kindle’s first real competitor saw the light of day for the first time this week, and it looks very, very impressive. The Barnes & Noble Nook launched Oct 20th, and it stands toe-to-toe with the standard that has been set by the Kindle, even exceeding it in many ways.
The important bits: The Nook has the same 6-inch eInk screen as the Kindle, and is $20 cheaper (the Nook preorders for $259, while the Kindle 2 is still $279). The Nook also has a remarkable navigation system: a secondary color touchscreen display, directly under the eInk. It’s a great-looking innovation, and one that gives the reader’s interface flexibility that the Kindle just doesn’t have. In my opinion, as you go through the specs, the comparison seems to favor the Nook over the Kindle.

Lend to a friend :LendMe

One of the most intriguing features of Nook, is it’s LendMe feature which allows you to loan an eBook to a friend to read for 14 days.  The LendMe feature works across platforms so you could share a book to your friend’s Blackberry or iPhone.  While the book is on loan to your friend, it’s disabled on your reader, so it becomes inaccessible to you.  Whether publishers will support LendMe or try to pull the plug on it is another question entirely.

posting by jim

Jonathan Demme has picked up Dave Eggers’ “Zeitoun” with plans to make it into an animated feature.

“I was staring at the book,” Mr. Demme said in a telephone interview, “and there’s this wonderful line drawing on the cover, the character of Zeitoun in his canoe, paddling through a submerged neighborhood. And I suddenly imagined, What if we could do an animated film and visualize the experiences of the Zeitoun family and all of New Orleans?”

“Zeitoun” is bittersweet story of a family’s struggle during Hurricane Katrina, Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun.  while Kathy Zeitoun and their children fled the city before the storm, Abdulrahman Zeitoun stayed behind to care for their home, business, and rental properties.  Using a secondhand canoe to navigate the flooded New Orleans streets, Zeitoun checked in on neighbors, rescued strangers, delivered supplies, and cared for dogs left behind.  On September 6, 2005, Kathy lost contact with her husband when he was picked up on false charges of being an al Qaeda terrorist.

i finished the audio book of “Zeitoun” last month and was enthralled with the story.  Eggers successfully personalized a national tragedy with Zeitoun’s tale.  i am curious to see this book translated into a movie, especially an animated one.

posting by marin

it’s only appropriate that Quirk announce the March 23, 2010 release of the prequel to “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” “Dawn of the Dreadfuls.”

In this prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, zombie carnage once again reigns in Regency England. Readers will be able to see how heroine Elizabeth Bennet — who emerged as a martial arts star in P&P&Z — evolves, as Quirk editor Jason Rekulak says, “from an innocent teenager to a deadly slayer of zombies.”

surprisingly, there are no holds for “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters,” but still 173 holds on P&P&Z – is this horror mash-up wearing out its welcome?

(via EW’s Shelf Life)

posting by marin

Frankie of “The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks,” a complicated character indeed.

(via Booklist Online)

posting by marin

“The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver is Pennie Clark Ianniciello’s pick of the month for Costco.  Clark Ianniciello says of the book:

Life offers certain truths. Among them is the fact that when Barbara Kingslover writes a new book, I will read it–and love it. Her latest novel, The Lacuna, is no exception. Harrison Shepherd, a U.S.-born citizen, grows up in Mexico, where he holds several odd jobs. Years later his work for Leon Trotsky and friendship with Frida Kahlo come back to haunt him.

“Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” aside, it’s Kingsolver’s first novel in nine years after “The Poisonwood Bible.”

(via Shelf Awareness)

posting by marin

October 28, 2009

Annotations from Baker & Taylor or Ingram

October 28, 2009

Annotations from Baker & Taylor or Ingram